Planning The Ultimate Cheese and Wine Night

I think it’s a well known fact that in our house, we love a cheese and wine night! Our love of cheese is unparalleled! We even had a cheese board as the starter at our wedding! So every once in a while, Mr. Actually and I do a cheese and wine night! Minimal effort, lots of great flavors, and an indulgent treat! Whenever I talk about it online, I always get loads of questions! So I thought I’d share a few of the things I do when putting together a nice cheese board!

TIP #1: MIX SWEET AND SAVOuRY

Type in ‘cheese board’ on Pinterest and pretty much every image you see will have some combination of sweet and savory. Why? Because cheese is the perfect complement! Whenever I do a cheese and wine night, I like to stock up on crackers and different fruits that will pair nicely with the cheeses I have. Pears, peaches, and grapes are great options. I also have honey, which goes really nicely with a lot of cheeses. The crackers are always savory, and I include olives because Mr. Actually loves them! If I’m feeling extra fancy, I’ll also add some charcuterie for him as well (I don’t eat meat, but it’s a nice treat for him!).

TIP #2: DON’T CROWD THE BOARD!

When there’s too much going on, it can become a little overwhelming… So I try not to crowd the board. Stick with 4-6 cheeses, and if you have more than one board, use it! I like having space between everything so that it stays fresher. Plus, then it becomes easier to cut and nibble. By not crowding the board, you can make sure the flavors of things don’t blend too much, and each treat has it’s own kind of… bubble!

TIP #3: A VARIETY OF CHEESES!

While you don’t want to have too many cheeses, it’s nice to have a little variety! I opt for some soft ones, a few harder ones, and some in between. A nice brie and a firmer pecorino are a nice combination. A blue cheese perhaps? A nice goats cheese? Mr. Actually likes a stilton or smokey cheeses too! If you’re not too sure what to go for, lots of cheese shops will also do a box you can order. I’ve ordered from Paxton & Whitfield in the past, and we’ve gotten a selection from High Weald Dairy and some other local places. Where ever your cheese is from, you want to serve it at room temperature!

TIP #4: WINE WINE WINE!

If you didn’t guess, one of the most important bits of your cheese and wine night is going to be… you guessed it! Wine! Generally speaking, we’re a white wine house. So I’ll pick up a couple of bottles of our favorite Savignon Blanc, or another nice white wine. We like to treat ourselves to some Vermentino, a delicious wine from Sardinia that we had on holiday! It’s not readily available but we’ve found a few places to buy it. It’s such a nice treat and definitely helps to elevate the evening!

So there you have it… a few homegrown tips for putting together your own cheese and wine night! We love doing fun things like this from time to time! It sure beats having to cook dinner sometimes! I think it’s a nice way to have a chilled out evening, without having to put too much effort in! When we decide to have a cheese and wine night, the evening tends to just become very mellow!

I’d love to know if you’ve tried it out after reading this post too! Have any good cheese/wine combos you want to share? Hit me up in the comments.