When the climbing roses start to bloom across the Carolinas, it's time to celebrate the start of summer. What better way than with a glass of pink wine?

Head to your local wine shop and gather an armload of pretty roses. Revel in the colors, ranging from palest salmon to petal pink to almost vibrant fuchsia. A refreshing glass of one of these crisp, delicate wines is like summer in a bottle.

Rose can be made from almost any type of red grape, which makes for lots of different styles and colors. It's fun to experiment with roses from pinot noir, malbec, grenache and even cabernet sauvignon.

When making wine, all the color comes from the skin. Often, a rose wine is made by letting the skins stay in contact with the grape juice just a short time. In other cases, juice is removed from a red-wine fermentation. The juice makes a pretty pink rose and leaves the red wine with more concentration and power - kind of a win-wine situation.

During the cooler months, roses are all but forgotten, but summer is another story. In lots of countries, drinking rose is a warm-weather ritual, particularly in the vacation-friendly areas in the South of France and coastal Spain. Cool, dry, and refreshing with delicate flavors of tart red fruit and citrus, they are adored for their food-friendliness and easy drinking qualities. Like a white, they are thirst-quenching, but like their red parents, they have interesting aromas and flavors.

In the United States, lots of wine drinkers adore the sweeter style of white zinfandel. This popular wine created a generation of wine lovers. But the European-style roses are not at all sweet.

Roses are perfect partners for food. Try one with salmon and fresh vegetables on the grill for a lovely summer dinner. They are a wonderful foil for just about any grilled item, and their versatility makes them a great choice for entertaining.

The best part, however, is the price. Often a rose is one of the more affordable choices in a wine store. You can certainly find the occasional $20 bottle of something spectacular, but more likely you'll find one you like for well under $10. Last year, I found a rose I particularly enjoyed for $6 and entertained with it all summer.