One of life's great pleasures is drinking a wine that is exactly right for that particular moment. As summer slowly winds to a close, many of us are in pursuit of one last weekend picnic or open-air meal on the balcony. Chilled soups, chicken, pasta and salads are naturals, but what to drink? Although out of fashion, rose can be an excellent match, and, if well chosen, can be sublime.

In our previous column we described the two main methods for making rose, and asked readers to nominate the best roses currently on the market in Japan. Judging from the feedback we received, there is a small but passionate group of rose lovers out there.

One self-described wine neophyte saw rose as the perfect bridge between learning about white and red wine (i.e. "red wine with training wheels"). But most rose fans were iconoclastic "big red" drinkers who said that there is indeed a right time for pink -- fashion be damned!