Whether you spend $20 or $200 on your next bottle of wine, there are ways to get the most out of the experience.

First, make sure you are drinking the wine at the optimal temperature. For reds, when they say "room temperature," keep in mind they mean in Europe, not in Hawai'i. So bring your red wine down to 62 degrees either by placing it in the refrigerator for 20 minutes or in an ice bucket for a short while. If you are lucky enough to have a climate-controlled wine cellar, your bottle of red will be the perfect temperature when you remove it.

For whites, chill the bottle, then take it out of the refrigerator 20 minutes before serving or, if it is coming from your cellar, chill it just a little more in ice or the refrigerator. If white wine is too cold, it will mute the flavors on your tongue — just see how much more flavor you get from your white wine as it warms up a little. I never keep still whites in an ice bucket, only champagne.

Next, don't be afraid to decant. Older reds are decanted to separate the solids that settle in the bottle with age. Younger reds benefit from breathing. A wine that smells "hot" from high alcohol content or stinky from being cooped up in a bottle for years can use a little aeration to blow off those smells.

In restaurants, you can ask for a decanter, a pitcher designed for aerating wine; it will benefit almost any wine that you have chosen. If a decanter is not available, just pour some wine into your glass and swirl. When you see those oversized glasses only half-filled, you are not being ripped off — you are still getting a 5- or 6-ounce pour, but the large bowl leaves room for swirling. If you get a smaller, thick-lipped glass in a restaurant, ask if there are nicer glasses available. You are spending hard-earned money on the wine, and you should enjoy it to its fullest potential. Remember, though, to take good care of your server for providing the extra service; the better glassware is expensive and has to be washed delicately.

That brings us to the glasses. Investing once in good glassware or giving such a gift to a wine connoisseur will make a difference in the wine-drinking experience. The glasses should be clear without patterns or decorations so you can appreciate the color and clarity of the wine. The rim should be as thin as possible, so the wine can slide easily onto the tongue. I like Riedel glasses and have been a convert ever since Georg Riedel did his seminar at the Halekulani a while back. The wines really did taste better in those glasses — and I went in a skeptic!

You can't go wrong by giving someone the trendy stemless "O" series glasses by Riedel. These came about when Riedel's son, Max, moved to New York City and could not fit his stemware in the small cabinets in his apartment. I throw mine into my suitcase for weekends away so I will have something nice to drink from. You can also pick up a new "breathable" glass and try your wines side by side as I do. You may find that some wines — such as young, tight selections — benefit from the breathable glass. But as Mariposa Assistant Manager Roy Chung says, you could just as easily decant younger wines.

So what do you do when you find yourself in the situation where you cannot finish that bottle? How can you keep it for another night? You could use a Vacu Vin wine saver, a device with which you place a rubber stopper in the bottle and pump out some oxygen. This is better than nothing, although some say this imparts a rubbery odor and taste to the wine. I invested in Private Preserve — a canister that contains the same gas that is used in the Cruvinet system found in fine wine bars. A few shots of this gas will push the lighter oxygen out of the bottle, then you can recork the wine and refrigerate it until you want to finish. But if you are looking for an inexpensive trick that works, save a small, 375 ml bottle and rinse it out well. When you cannot finish a bottle of wine, simply pour the remainder into this half-bottle, then recork and refrigerate it for up to a week.

Enjoy your wine to the max this holiday season!