Wine & Cheese Tasting Party

For the past two years, my husband and I have hosted a Wine and Cheese Tasting Party. I love it – its easy to throw together and it’s not something that requires a lot of time in the kitchen. No matter how much we have going on in life, if we have a free evening, we can host a Wine and Cheese Tasting Party.

Now, there are several ways to do this type of party. Most people will probably tell you to pick a complimentary assortment of wine and cheeses yourself. For us, the problem with that is that we end up sticking to cheeses or wines that we know better, so there’s less experimentation. The other problem is that we have an open door policy at our house, so while I can get an estimate of how many people are coming, it’s never really accurate. For instance, I had 13 affirmative RSVPs prior to this party, 3 bailed at the last-minute, but we ended up with close to 25 people actually show up. You can see how this would cause problems for preparing if we were to provide everything….

So instead of putting everything together ourselves, we provide an assortment of crackers, breads,  and other complimentary snacks and ask everyone to bring a bottle of their favorite wine and/or cheese to share with the group. I find this works out great. We get a huge assortment of both cheeses and wines – both old favorites and new experiments. I make sure I have a couple of extra bottles of wine and blocks of cheese in case we run short, but for the past two years, we’ve ended up with the perfect amount of both.

Wine & Cheese Tasting Party

Drinks & Cheese provided by our wonderful friends

To Drink (not conclusive since I took out recycling before writing them all down – doh!)

Some great reds, perfect for me, as I’m still acquiring a taste for red wines.

  • Running with Scissors Petite Sirah
  • Ramal Road Pinot Noir
  • Gnarled Vine Cabernet Sauvignon
  • Marietta Cellars Old Vine Red
  • Boordy Syrah

Light and fruity whites

  • Anakena Sauvignon Blanc
  • La Delizia Pinot Grigio
  • Patrizi Moscato D’Asti
  • Kris Pinot Grigio
  • Black Swan Pinot Grigio

And a couple sweet dessert wines, that although there, were never opened:

  • Cooper Vineyards Noche Noche
  • Chocovine (we were so curious about this one and then forgot about it. Has anyone tried it?)

Cheeses:

Marinated Cappiello (Mozzarella)

Jarlsberg

Swiss Gruyère

Dubliner

Havarti with Dill

Gouda

Cheddar with Guinness

Swiss

Complements:

Assorted Crackers: Club Crackers, Triscuits, Whole Wheat Crackers

Store-Bought Crostini

Toast Points

Barefoot Contessa’s Cheese Straws

Genoa Salame

Red Grapes

Walnuts

And for Something Sweet:

Cheesecake Truffles

Assorted Lindt Chocolates

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