Which Australian wines match a Christmas meal of seafood with pavlova dessert?

Q. We have English friends staying this Christmas and plan to show them how we do it here: no roast or pudding, just a big spread of seafood and passionfruit pavlova for dessert. We want to serve truly Australian wines to go with it – ideas?

A. Is that you, Peter FitzSimons? Sure it's not? Honoured as I would be to receive an inquiry from the Australian Republican Movement, this puts me on the spot. Normally, when I hear the words "Australian Christmas" and "wine match" I hit the auto-button that says "sparkling shiraz" before reclining and pouring another glass of festive cheer (such an aid to after-dinner online gift shopping, although I fear some Scrooge-like genius will soon invent an alcohol interlock device for PayPal accounts).

You and your "we're-just-doing-seafood and pav" plan have put paid to that. Sparkling burgundy, as we used to call it before the French came over all snitty about us appropriating their regional names, is just the ticket with a slab of plum pud – but not with the meal you're proposing.

So here goes: for the oysters, get yourself in a Tasmanian frame of mind (I mean that in the best possible way) and buy a bottle of top-of-the-line Australian cool-climate sparkles. While you're at the boozer, grab some Tassie riesling.Then, for your prawns – or Moreton Bay bugs, or barramundi, or whatever it is you're doing on the day – head to the semillon aisle. This is likely to be not so much an aisle as a poorly signposted cul-de-sac off the boulevard of sauvignon blanc.

Buy whatever you find there that suits your budget. Just make sure it is from the Hunter Valley, because Hunter semillon is among the most quintessentially Australian wines around. No one else does it the way we do; it goes beautifully with seafood; and it's typically about 11 or 11.5 per cent alcohol, so you can drink a lot of it on a day when you may feel the need to.

Pavlova, frankly, is no friend to wine – it's so sweet. But if you want to wow your English friends, offer cheese as well and pour De Bortoli's lush, botrytised Noble One to go with it. Finish with Rutherglen muscat and a rousing Queen's Speech drinking game (bonus points for double-strand pearls and random extra corgis) to help your guests feel at home.

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