DIY Wine & Cheese Party (with Pairing Suggestions & Free Printable!)
It doesn’t get much classier than a wine and cheese party and the best part about hosting one is that it requires little to no cooking so you can spend time enjoying your company instead of being in the kitchen. Whether it’s for a small dinner party, an at-home date night, or a girls night in, it’s really hard to go wrong with wine and cheese.
When I’m keeping a party simple, I really love to have a stand-out piece like this amazing ampersand Cheese & Cracker Serving Board from UncommonGoods (you can find it here). I choose it when I was browsing the gifts for women section on UncommonGoods. One of my favorite parts of graphic design is typography and I absolutely love all things ampersand. We do wine and cheese nights fairly often too so I just couldn’t resist this board. Isn’t it a great statement piece?
Not to mention it’s pretty enough to set out as an art piece. We made room on a shelf in our kitchen to display it when not in use.
I’m getting ready to leave town for my first girls trip in over a decade later this week. So I thought it would be nice to have a fancy little at-home date night with my husband before I off and leave him with three kids to go lay on a beach and sip cocktails for the weekend.
In planning the date night, the first thing I did was sit down to read up on proper wine and cheese pairings. It can get a little overwhelming so I decided to keep it simple: 4 wines (2 white, 2 red) paired with 4 cheeses. These are the Wine & Cheese Pairings I ultimately decided on:
- Sauvignon Blanc with Goat Cheese
- Chardonnay with Triple Cream Brie (Pretty much the most amazing cheese in the history of ever.)
- Pinot Noir with Gruyére
- Cabernet Sauvignon with Sharp Cheddar
Along with the wine and cheese, I served crackers, fig jam, champagne grapes, and raw honey to drizzle over the goat cheese.
It’s so easy to set up and did I mention the no cooking part of an evening like this one? Yes, please! (Ok, so technically the brie is best if you warm it slightly in the oven or even microwave so it gets all nice and melt-y but that’s completely optional. In fact, I didn’t warm it on this night it was excellent, especially topped with the fig jam).
If you want to add some protein in the mix, wild-caught smoked salmon goes beautifully with wine and cheese.
To jazz up the display, I did the following:
- I created a mini chalkboard menu with a $6 chalkboard stand I bought at the craft store. I used a chalk marker and just hand-lettered the menu on the board. I used No. 1, No. 2, etc. for each pairing.
- I poured each wine into a carafe and made coordinating numbered cards by simply cutting black card stock rectangles and folding them in half to create “tents” that would stand up on their own.
- I used silver washi tape, a toothpick, and a fine permanent marker to label each cheese.
- Finally, I designed a sweet little chalkboard wine printable to print, frame, and set out and I’m sharing it with you! Just click the image below to download and print your own (Size is 8×10. Personal use only, please).
While I was browsing the site, I also saw some awesome personalized gifts on UncommonGoods that will make perfect Christmas gifts this year, especially for my parents and in-laws. Maybe this will be the year I don’t wait until Dec 20th to start shopping.
Disclosure: As a person who makes and sells handmade goods, I’m a HUGE fan of UncommonGoods, their business practices, and their mission to support and provide a platform for artists and designers. You can read a bit more about them here. I’m a huge advocate of buying quality, handmade items so this is such a wonderful company to support. This post is NOT paid nor does it contain affiliate links. However, I did receive a complimentary Cheese & Crackers serving board. I totally would have bought it anyway on account of my love of all things ampersand. Not to mention the quality is amazing and, as you can see, it’s completely adorable.
Enjoy!
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