Let’s Celebrate with a Cheese Board…and Wine!
My sister-in-law just got engaged! Time to celebrate. Soon everyone will be hosting parties for her and her fiancé, wining and dining them before their big day!
We love to entertain! Whether it’s celebrating an engagement, promotion or just an excuse to get a bunch of friends together, entertaining is downright fun!
It seems a cheese board is a welcome indulgence any time, but especially for dinner or cocktail parties. If you want to wow your guests, don’t just plop a bunch of cheese on a plate and call it a night. Creating a beautiful cheese board can be something of an art. A cheese board offers a great way to feed your guests either before dinner, after dinner or as dinner itself.
If you want to wow your guests, follow these tips to prepare the stunningly perfect cheese board. And don’t forget the wine!
Choose a variety of cheeses with varying textures and flavors: soft, firm and bleu. Look for a cheese that is soft, like chèvre logs or brie. A firm cheese like an aged gouda or asiago is a safe bet. Finally, choose a blue cheese like stilton or Roquefort.
Plate your cheeses on a large plate, cutting board or marble slab. Choosing a complementary color of your platter with your cheese will provide a pleasing presentation. Choose dark colors or wood create a nice visual appeal.
To create an array of textures that will complement your cheese, pick accompaniments like dried and fresh fruit, toasted nuts, jams, compotes or jellies.
To cleanse the palates between bites, offer pre-cut bread and crackers between bites.
Assemble your cheeses either parallel or 90 degrees from each other and group accoutrements between them. This creates a nice contrast and allows people to navigate around the plate and see everything there is to offer.
Carefully place your cheese with the rinds facing inward and accompaniments in the between. This will encourage your guests to mix and match flavors.
Don’t overwhelm the plate. While an abundant array of options makes for a great eye-catching appeal, keep in mind how your guest can pick out their favorite bites.
Remember to remove all inedible items like twine, cloth and wax rinds.
Construct your cheese tray about an hour before your guests arrive. Room temperature cheeses are easier to cut and offer their full flavor profile.
Now, for the wine! Pairing cheese and wine together successfully is more challenging than it may seem. The wine you serve should complement the cheese you just spent so much time picking out. Plan to serve three varieties of wine.
Pick an unoaked white wine or rosé to serve with lighter cheese. A sauvignon blanc like Kono Sauvignon Blanc or a rosé like Fleur de Mer from Côtes de Provence are good choices.
Serve a bold red with semi-hard to hard cheese. Choose cabernet sauvignon like Josh Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon or Simi Alexander Cabernet Sauvignon.
Sweeter, dessert wines like Port and Sherry pair well with blue cheese like stilton and Roquefort.
Please leave your comments below, I would love to hear from you. Until next time, cheers!