How to Host a Wine and Cheese Party

Hosting a wine and cheese party is a great way to hold an ad hoc event in your home that lets you enjoy the fineries of life with your favorite people and without all the bustle that goes into pulling together a large dinner party or a tent party. Host a wine and cheese party (perhaps even a French wine and cheese party) almost effortlessly through a few helpful steps.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Wine and cheese party invitations (optional)
• Assortment of mild to pungent cheeses
• Wine bottle selection (reds, whites and rosés)
• Cheese trays and knives
• Crackers or toast points
• Grapes and other garnishes

1. Buy a pack of casual yet tasteful paper wine and cheese party invitations to be sent out a few weeks in advance. If you plan to host a more casual wine and cheese party, invite your friends verbally or by email a couple weeks in advance. Wine and cheese parties can be planned as late or as early as you desire—sometimes the coziest wine and cheese parties are thrown together just hours ahead of time.
2. Pay a visit to your local cheese shop to have a taste of various cheeses. Your guests will love sampling a range of fine cheese from crumbly goat cheese to melting brie to sharp Vermont Cheddar. This way, your gathering will not only be a wine and cheese party, but also a wine and cheese tasting. Try to choose cheeses from different regions of the world and different degrees of nuttiness, texture and aroma. It’s also a fun idea to include a cheese made by a cheesemaker in your area.
3. Go to your local wine shop and ask the proprietor if you can taste a variety of white and red wines to get a sense of which rare wines or classic wines would set the warmest mood and pair best with cheese. Supple, aromatic red wine goes well with French cheeses that are on the stinky side.
4. Buy a variety of wines to cater to the tastes of all of your guests. If you plan to have a pot luck sort of wine and cheese party, you can buy a few basic table wines and all of the cheese, but have the guests each bring a bottle of their favorite, inexpensive wine.
5. On the night of the wine and cheese party, take your cheese out of the refrigerator in advance to let it mellow. Set the cheese on various cutting boards and trays, separating them by variety so that the flavors don’t taint one another. Garnish the surfaces with grapes and rows of crackers. Set out both red and white glasses. Be sure the red wine is room temperature or slightly below and the white wine is chilling in ice buckets or in the refrigerator.
6. Have the wine and cheese out and scattered throughout the room to avoid a crush as your guests arrive hungry and thirsty. Be sure to keep the cheese trays stocked with crackers and grapes. Have wine keys handy as soon as bottles run out.

Tips & Warnings

• Try to keep the party small to medium. Elegant wine and cheese parties are great for audible conversation and relaxing times.
• Don’t get bogged down by choosing the classiest wines and cheeses you can (or can't) afford. A wine and cheese party is meant to be a chance to entertain modestly or on short notice.