cheese

Your Perfect Wine and Cheese Pairing Guide

your perfect wine and cheese pairing guide the three drinkers

Cheese and wine are an iconic match for good reason, so if you’ve never got round to pairing them or just want some mouth-watering combinations to try, then what better time than Christmas time?

From fizz to reds to whites and sweeter wines, we’ve paired your favourites with delicious cheeses that bring the best out of both of them and serve as great ambassadors for what the fuss is all about. Let’s get stuck in.

SPARKLING WINES

Champagne

champagne and truffle brie your perfect wine and cheese pairing guide the three drinkers

For a luxurious pairing, try pairing Champagne with Truffle Brie. Brie is deliciously fatty, which coats the mouth and the super-fine bubbles of the Champagne slice through and cleanse with their sharpness, setting you up for another bite of brie, and so the heavenly cycle continues. Flavour wise, the earthy, creamy richness of the truffle brie compliments the toasty, brioche notes of Champagne. Aged Comté would go deliciously too, playing up to Champagne’s buttery and nutty notes. Any good, biscuity Champagne with mature, lively acidity would work, like the one below.

Champagne Charles Heidsieck Brut Réserve - £55

Cava

cava and manchego your perfect wine and cheese pairing guide the three drinkers

For Cava, look to hard sheep milk cheeses like Manchego, or Berks well. You get the nutty characteristics from the aging, with a slightly granular texture, caramel notes, and a tang to the finish. Similarly, to Cava, the toasty, nutty and caramel flavours develop with age, so the two converge somewhat. The gentle sweetness in the cheese is a natural partner for sparkling wine. An aged Cava like below brings gorgeous pastry and pear flavours, with refined fizz and fresh acidity.

Bodegas Sumarroca Brut Reserva 2019/20 - £13.95

WHITE WINES

Chardonnay

chardonnay and beaufort your perfect wine and cheese pairing guide the three drinkers

For Chardonnay, look to alpine-style cheeses. However, be aware that unoaked Chardonnay is crisp, and lean, whereas oaked chardonnays are more associated with toasted or vanilla notes. Provenance matters too, as the grape is malleable. From cool-climate citrus and minerality, to hotter California ripeness and full-bodied fruit – this affects the pairings. Think Beaufort for unoaked/mildly oaked cool-climate Chardonnay, with smooth, creamy texture and distinct, earthy aromas. For warmer-climate, oaked Chardonnay, go big and bold. Think buttery, creamy alpine-style cheeses like Comté Vieux with full, nutty richness and fruits or Aged Gouda for its intense, nutty flavour and crumbly texture. The oaked Coonawarra Chardonnay below from Australia has great buttery complexity.

Hollick Bond Road Coonawarra Chardonnay - £16.99

Sauvignon Blanc

sauvignon blanc and goats cheese your perfect wine and cheese pairing guide the three drinkers

Alongside a glass of Sauvignon Blanc, look to goat’s cheeses with rich. Sauvignon, with its acidic, citrussy mineral-driven chisel, slices through the rich and gamey cheese perfectly. Their acidity match, creating a refreshing and invigorating feeling. You can look to the Loire Valley, famous for both Sauvignon Blanc and ash-coated aged Chévre, for a regional pairing of mineral, grassy notes, and for Selles sur Cher, a succulent and velvety cheese with nuts, citrus, salt, and a hint of sweetness – the Sauvignon will make those bright lemony flavours sing. Check out the fresh, well-balanced number below.

Cabriz Dao Sauvignon Blanc 2021 - £12.24

RED WINES

Pinot Noir

pinot noir and cheddar your perfect wine and cheese pairing guide the three drinkers

Pinot Noir notes are full of light, fruity notes that make it a versatile dance partner for delicately flavoured cheeses. The lighter the Pinot, the creamier and softer the cheese – so, Brie and Camembert for a dreamy red fruit punch that won’t overpower the subtlety of the cheese. Elegant, light and fruity, the Walat Pinot below is perfect. For Pinots with a bit more body, really good Premium Cheddar is fantastic, where the body is full of warm toasted nuts.

Walt Pinot Noir Pfalz - £11.99

Tempranillo

your perfect wine and cheese pairing guide the three drinkers

Like the Loire Valley with Sauvignon Blanc and goat’s cheese, Tempranillo and Idiazabal adhere to the old saying, ‘if it grows together, it goes together’. The full-bodied Tempranillo works a treat with the harder, grainy texture of the cheese, the high tannins contrast with the buttery flavour, and both are Spanish with savoury flavours and wafts of smoke.

ROSÉ

Pale French Rosé

your perfect wine and cheese pairing guide the three drinkers

Pungent cheeses can easily overpower a Rosé, but there is still enough tartness to cleanse the palate of flavoursome cheeses, and Rosé is actually a flexible pairing, particularly if the Rosé has acidity, dryness, and bubbles. Fresh, young cheeses like Feta, Mozzarella and Baby Swiss all nuzzle up to the berry notes nicely, and the wine can cut through and reset the palate. We recommend a pure, smooth Havarti though, because the flavours are mellow and delicate, and the steely minerality of Provence Rosé counters the soft cheesy texture wonderfully. Check out the zippy bittersweet fruits of the bottle below, which also brings a cool saline tang.

Barbebelle Rose Fleuri Coteaux d'Aix en Provence Rose 2022 - £8.95

SWEET WINE

Port

your perfect wine and cheese pairing guide the three drinkers

Port and Stilton is a bonified classic pairing, and for good reason. Port brings full body, sweetness, and rich boldness – so you need a cheese stinky enough to stand up to it. A salty Blue Stilton brings pungent complexity to pair with the sweetness. A Christmas classic. The sweet but complex Tawny below is perfect.

Noval 10 Year Old Tawny Port - £25.95

For more cheese and wine pairings and tips on how to get the most out of tasting them together, explore our in-depth tasting guide here.

Classic Cheese and Wine Matches

It’s that time of year when we put together a mega cheeseboard and pick at it ALL DAY! For several days. What joy! With help from the brilliant folks at Paxton & Whitfield cheesemongers, I've chosen some classic wine and cheese combinations to help you navigate the cheeseboard.

All cheeses below can be found at PaxtonandWhitfield.co.uk

Goats Cheese + Sauvignon Blanc

The Cheese: Selles Sur Cher

A French goats' cheese from the Loire Valley, France, Selles sur Cher is a classic French goats’ milk cheese that’s finely textured, succulent and velvety. It has an aroma of walnuts and the flavour is also nutty but with a hint of lemon and salt followed by a mellow sweetness. The Cher river runs parallel to the Loire, home of world renowned Sauvignon Blanc that is fresh, bright and grassy. These wines match perfectly the bright lemony flavours of this cheese.

The Wine: Stone & Bones Sauvignon Blanc 2020, Portugal 

More elegant than Marlborough, More fruity than a Sancerre, this zesty, herbaceous Sauvignon Blanc from Portugal is a deliciously different, mid-way style that will sing with this goats’ cheese.

Find it for £10.99 mix 6 price at Laithwaites. 

Premium Cheddar + Pinot Noir

The Cheese: Westcombe Reserve

Cheddar is undoubtedly the UK’s most popular cheese, outselling British and Continental counterparts, yet so often it is thought of as a cooking or an everyday cheese. Over the last few years, the team at the award-winning Westcombe Dairy, Somerset, have made big decisions to improve the quality of their cheese. Lots of these decisions have been in the field, rather than the dairy, one of them being to farm in a more sustainable, regenerative way. These decisions have resulted in some of their best ever batches of cheeses. The team at Paxtons has selected a single day’s production of cheese, from the 12th of March 2020, to age further and create a special profile especially for its customers this Christmas. With a full body and notes of warm toasted nuts, this promises to be a very special batch of cheese indeed.

The Wine: Gabel Pinot Noir Kalkstein 2018

German Pinot Noir has a gloriously silky, lactic feel to it making it exceptionally elegant, yet easy drinking. Think ripe red berries with a touch of spice and a hint of smoke. 

Find it for £13.99 mix case price at Laithwaites 

Alpine Cheese + Chardonnay

Cheese 1: Beaufort

Beaufort is a huge Alpine cheese weighing between 40-60kg that is named after the Beaufort Valley in France where it was first produced, where mountains reach altitudes of 3000 metres.

It’s pale yellow, with a smooth and creamy texture and lacks holes like other Gruyère-style cheeses. It also has a very distinct, earthy aroma, reminiscent of the pastures on which the Tarentaise and Abondance cows graze to provide the milk used for the cheese. This is the cheese also commonly used to make cheese fondue because it melts easily and it’s a winner with bold, white wine like Chardonnay.

Cheese 2: Comté Vieux

A limited edition Comté Vieux cheese that’s extra mature, aged for approximately 29 months in French caves . Made with the raw milk from Montbeliarde and French Simmental cows, the flavour is nutty, full and rich, with fruity tones and more of the crunchy Tyrosine crystals formed during the aging of the cheese. 

The Wine: Redhead’s Harmonie Fox Coonawarra Chardonnay 2021

Coonawarra has traditionally been famous for big, bold reds made with Cabernet Sauvignon so a Chardonnay is a step away from the norm. This is an ideal style of white for a flavoursome hard, nutty cheese as it has lots of ripe peach and apricot fruit as well as a crisp acidity and a touch of spicy oak. 

Find it for £11.69 mixed case price at Laithwaites 

Blue Cheese + Sweet White Wine

Cheese 1: Cashel Blue, Irish Farmhouse Blue Cheese

Cashel Blue is the original Irish blue cheese! Firm, salty and savoury blue cheese that starts as a firm textured, crumbly consistency but with ripening it takes on a soft, creamy, almost spreadable texture. As it matures, the flavour also changes, growing stronger and becoming spicier. The rind is very distinctive with a covering of grey and pink moulds.

Cheese 2: Blue Cloud

Inspired by soft, sweet Gorgonzola style blues, Blue Cloud is made on the beautiful Balcombe Estate in Sussex using milk from a single herd of Norwegian Red Holstein cows. The cheese is soft and creamy, with a heady, doughy scent reminiscent of freshly baked bread.

The Wine: Seifried, Nelson ‘Sweet Agnes’ Late Harvest Riesling 2019

A late harvest Riesling from Nelson, just next door to Marlborough, New Zealand,. Made with raisined grapes, it’s a lusciously sweet wine with tonnes of refreshing acidity. Think apricot, marmalade, lemon and tropical fruit. It’s not Port you need; it’s sweet white wine!

Find it for £14.99 per half bottle and mixed case price at Laithwaites

Want to know how to put together a cheese platter? Check out this article.

How to Put Together the Perfect Cheeseboard

cheeseboard paxton and whitfiled

As Helena looks into wine and cheese matching, she gets some tips from Hero Hirsh, head of retail at the award-winning cheesemonger, Paxton & Whitfield about how to put together the perfect cheeseboard or cheese platter.

How much cheese per person?

If your cheeseboard is part of a meal, about 100g to 125g of cheese per person and  possibly a little more at Christmas is ideal, so 150g each. This is because at Christmas, the cheeseboard will often sit out for longer so people will come and go for snacks throughout the day. We can certainly agree with that!

How do you put a cheeseboard together?

Think about offering a mix of styles, textures and flavours on the platter. This is why the combination of Cheddar, Stilton and Brie has always been popular as you've got a blue, a hard cheese and a soft cheese; different textures, different milks and different flavours to savour. If you’d like to add further cheeses, perhaps think about a goats cheese and a washed rind to complete the board. Five is a good number for a full board.

Should you consider other food in the meal when putting together the cheese platter?

Yes, certainly consider what other food you are serving for the meal or at the event. If the dish just before is rich and flavoursome, think about selecting cheeses that have a stronger flavour so that they complement preceding courses. The cheese course should be a continuation of flavours so it can be enjoyed so try to match the intensity. 

What are the ideal accompaniments to a cheese board?

If you’ve got lots of flavoursome cheeses, then keep accompaniments simple, so one chutney or honey, one style of biscuit or artisan bread and then perhaps some grapes or dried fruits. Arrange them around the pieces of the cheese on the cheeseboard. Finally, I’d add  in the cheese knife and then you have a visually appetising cheeseboard to enjoy.

Are there rules to how to lay out cheese on a cheeseboard?

There are no hard and fast rules about laying a cheeseboard out. The most important thing is to make sure that it looks visually appealing and that it is easy for guests to help themselves to the cheese. There are no real rules about which cheeses can and can’t sit close to each other on a cheeseboard. If you go for a good balanced selection as outlined above, everything should be fine. 

Any tips on how to store various types of cheese?  And what to do with any leftover bits of cheese?  

How you treat the cheese has an important impact on your enjoyment of it. Once bought, I would always recommend storing the cheese in a cold room or the bottom of the fridge - if possible wrapped in waxed paper as this allows the cheese to breath. Before serving, bring the cheese out to warm up to room temperature. Twenty minutes should be enough, particularly in a warm house at Christmas. Letting the cheese warm a little will help improve its flavours when you come to eat it.  

A good piece of advice for when buying cheese for your cheeseboard at Christmas is to buy less cheese but bigger pieces. Larger pieces of fewer types will keep better over Christmas time. Bigger cuts of cheese store better than lots of small cuts. A hard cheese, a blue, a soft cheese and a piece of cheese that is slightly different or surprising is all that you need to create an appealing cheeseboard. 

In terms of leftovers, cheese is incredibly versatile and leftover cheese makes a superb cooking ingredient. It can be used in soups, risottos, pasta bakes and as a finishing touch stirred into a gravy, or sauce, to add a little bit of richness.  

Visit Paxton & Whitfield for all your cheese needs:

cheese shop bath

www.paxtonandwhitfield.co.uk

London Shops

93 Jermyn Street, London SW1Y 6JE 
Telephone: +44 (0) 20 7930 0259
Email: jermynstreet@paxtonandwhitfield.co.uk

22 Cale Street, London, SW3 3QU
Telephone: +44 (0) 20 7584 0751
Email: calestreet@paxtonandwhitfield.co.uk

Bath Shop

1 John Street, Bath, BA1 2JL
Telephone: +44 (0)1225 466403
Email: bath@paxtonandwhitfield.co.uk