In the pink for a bubbly Christmas

Think Christmas, think Santa in his bright red suit and the tinsel and the lights that sparkle on the Christmas tree.

Think wines to go with this most important celebration of the year, and the question you were about to ask has already been answered.

Go for a match. But for a slightly more fashionable, pinker shade of Santa red, and plenty of sparkle.

While I'm not suggesting that wines which match this prescription are the only kinds that suit the occasion, I am suggesting that both – rose, sparkling rose and other bubblies – are finding a more important place in the Christmas celebration in this part of the world.

Why? Because they're pleasant, popular, and they match the time of year. They are also more appropriate to the kinds of foods that slowly but surely are replacing traditional Christmas dinner fare and are now often eaten out of doors in the summer sun.

Even if tradition rules, these wines can still be used because rose, in whatever form, is one of the most versatile food wines of them all. And so is sparkling wine – pink or otherwise.

The first thing that needs to be understood is that all roses are not born equal. No longer are they simply a byproduct of red winemaking, distinguished only by the colour of their lolly-water sameness – anything from copper through to salmon pink.

Today in New Zealand roses are made in many different styles from a variety of grapes, which means there are wines of many different weights and shades and tastes ranging from fresh, crisp, slightly sweeter pinot-driven roses to the fuller, drier merlot-based models.

In all of them, however, you can expect a taste of summer, often in the form of strawberries and similar fruit.

Bubblies with a tinge of pink have also become hugely popular worldwide, with several New Zealand producers now making rose sparklers, which like their paler counterparts are also extraordinarily versatile wines, with or without food.

Some Christmas/summer roses:

Amisfield 2010 Saignee Rose, $25

An excellent example of the style and it tastes as good as it looks. Made from Central Otago pinot noir, it's beautifully perfumed and loaded with strawberries sprinkled with a subtle shake of spice.

A gorgeous summer drink.

La Strada 2010 Rose, $19

Some would call it serious, others different. Both are right. It's a Marlborough rose that dares to be dry, instead of sweet or candied. Mostly pinot noir with a contribution from syrah and malbec, it is fresh and rather delicately flavoured.