People are looking for value everywhere today. Wine is no exception. Whether purchasing wine at retail or in restaurants, wine drinkers have a renewed focus on bang for the buck.

Great wine value doesn’t end with the purchase though. Unless you are buying as a collector/speculator, a wine’s real value is only revealed when you drink it. Regardless of how highly rated a wine might be, or how low the price you paid, the wine is a poor value if you don’t enjoy it fully. With that in mind, here are some tips for getting the most out of whatever you may be drinking.

Break out the good glasses. It’s not only the trophy wines that benefit from nice glasses. Any wine will benefit. So, whether you’re drinking a budget Cabernet Sauvignon or a Pinot Gris that is as refreshing to your wallet as it is your palate, use your Riedel, Schott Zweisel or other fancy crystal if you have it.

If you’re drinking a young red wine, decant it. Depending on the wine, it may or may not benefit from aeration. But, if you’re going to drink it fairly quickly, the aeration won’t hurt. Using a decanter makes any occasion seem more festive. The process of decanting can do as much for your state of mind as it does for the wine.

Don’t engage in points envy. We can’t drink a wine speculator top pick every night of the week. Sometimes a less celebrated wine is more appropriate to our budget, the occasion and the food we’re drinking it with. And sometimes we don’t want a wine that we have to think about. We just want something yummy. Focus on the tasty wine in your glass, not on some bottle you left on the shelf.

Pay attention to your food and wine pairings. You don’t need to be a master sommelier or spend a lot of time in careful analysis. Just make sure that the wine and food complement each other. It is easy to avoid clashes. Go easy on the salt, acid, and sugar when cooking. Match tannic wines with fatty meats, acid with acid, sweet with sweet, etc. If your wine is light in body and flavor, go with a light meal. Even relatively simple and inexpensive wines can seem great with the right food.

Drink a wine that evokes fond memories. Sometimes our best wine experiences take place on vacations or special occasions. You can re-create a little bit of that magic by drinking a wine that echos one of your favorites of times past. Thinking about special moments will improve your mood overall and make the wine seem even better.

Enjoy your wine with friends or family. Often our best open bottle experiences are due more to the company we are keeping than the actual wine itself. If you’re surrounded by people you love and are having fun with them, anything you eat or drink will taste better.

On the other hand, you can also choose to enhance your enjoyment by really focusing on the wine. Practice your tasting skills. See how many different aromas and flavors you can identify. Try to guess the alcohol percentage. Is the wine balanced? If not, how would you improve it?

Consider doing an informal taste-off. Open a couple of similar wines and compare them. Compare an unoaked Sauvignon Blanc to a Fumé Blanc. Put a Lodi Zinfandel in one glass and a Zin from Paso Robles in another. How are they different? In what ways are they similar?

We have all had great wines when our head really wasn’t in it. In doing so, we didn’t get the full value out of those wines. Now, when every dollar is more precious than it may have been two years ago, it’s more important than ever to make each bottle count. No matter what it is. Enjoy!

This article is original to NorCalWine.com. Copyright 2009 NorCal Wine. All rights reserved.

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