Wine and cheese are age-old partners, often evolving side-by-side, influenced by geography, climate, and local tradition. How to pair wine and cheese is a timeless and enjoyable skill.

Whether you’re hosting wine and cheese pairings, creating a board, or simply taking a quiet evening at home to the next level, we’ve curated five classic cheese pairings. Beginner or seasoned wine lover and ‘cheesophile’, we invite you to be inspired.

Brie’s indulgent, buttery core (especially the decadently rich triple-cream versions) has the perfect contrast in Champagne. This sparkling wine’s high acidity and delicate mousse act as a counter to the delightfully rich and fatty cheese for all your cheese board ideas. With Champagne refreshing the palate between bites, this is one of the best wine and cheese combinations.

Why do they work?

Champagne features:

• green apple
• pear
• citrus zest
• almond
• trademark brioche
• bright acidity
• refreshing effervescence

Brie features:

• creamy flavor
• slightly saline notes
• mushroomy rind
• buttery, velvety texture

Best choices?

On the cheese front, go for Brie, Brie de Meaux, Brillat-Savarin, Delice de Bourgogne. For the bubbles, NV Champagne, Crémant, or English traditional-method sparkling wine are excellent choices.

Pairing tip:
It’s difficult to go wrong with this delicious duo of froth and fromage! A word of advice - avoid heavily flavored infusions that sometimes grace a cheese (garlic, truffle, herbs) as they’ll overwhelm the sparkling wine.

This classic wine pairing has been perfected over the years in France’s Loire Valley, where Sauvignon Blanc and goat cheese developed hand-in-hand. Chèvre’s tart tones, chalky texture, and herbal lift mirror the wine’s grassy notes, citrus freshness, and precise minerality. The result is a mouth-watering cheese tasting that feels so right, you can imagine it always existed.

Why do they work?

Sauvignon Blanc features:

• citrus
• green apple
• exotic fruit (sunny climates)
• herbaceous hints
• searing acidity
• mineral richness
• light to medium body
• flinty notes

Goat Cheese features:

• tangy, tart notes
• saline creaminess
• crumbly texture

Best choices:

Try Crottin de Chavignol, Valençay, Sainte-Maure de Touraine, fresh chèvre logs. For the wine, classic Sancerre, Pouilly-Fumé, Menetou-Salon, and Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc are perfect picks.

Pairing tip:
Goat cheese becomes firmer and tastily funkier as it ages. To match this profile, choose a richer, Fumé Blanc style for a delicious food and wine pairing.

Comté is an iconic cheese from the French Jura, enjoyed for its nutty depth, subtle sweet hints, and complex aromatic profile influenced by extended aging. Chardonnay, particularly Burgundy or other cool climate styles, is equally refined and exquisite. The wine’s textured body and layers of citrus, orchard fruit, and tempered oak highlight the cheese’s savory nuttiness and silky feel.

Why do they work?

White Burgundy features:

• citrus
• green apple
• yellow plum
• toasty notes
• bright acidity
• delicate spice
• satiny, layered mouthfeel

Comté features:

• nutty notes
• creamy, buttery flavors
• sweet, browned butter notes
• delicate toast
• creamy, supple to dense texture (depending on age)

Best choices:

An ideal choice is Comté aged 12 to 24 months for a firmer texture, Gruyère réserve (a close relative), or Beaufort. For wine, you can’t go wrong with Puligny-Montrachet, Meursault, Sonoma Coast Chardonnay, or a glass of mineral-rich Chablis for a lighter match.

Pairing tip:
If your Comté is older (24 months plus), we suggest a Chardonnay with a little more oak or bottle maturation to complement the cheese’s depth. Young or aged, this is one of the world’s classic cheese pairings!

Pinot Noir is characterized by finesse and balance with cherry, raspberry, rose hints, and a subtle earthiness. This elegant red wine of finesse matches the savory, nutty, ever-so-slightly sweet profile of Gruyère. More concentrated, big reds would overpower the cheese, but Pinot Noir’s refreshing tartness and supple, gentle tannins enhance the creamy texture of complex Gruyère, which, in turn, showcases the wine’s delicate red fruit.

Why do they work?

Pinot Noir features:

• tart red fruit
• bright acidity
• subtle tannins
• earthy hints
• silky mouthfeel

Gruyère features:

• nutty hints
• delicate caramelised notes
• earthiness
• smooth, dense, flay texture (depending on age)
• gorgeously meltable!

Best choices

For Pinot Noir, as well as traditional Gruyère, go for cave-aged Gruyère, Emmental, and aged Appenzeller. Bourgogne Rouge, elegant Chambolle-Musigny, Oregon Pinot Noir, and concentrated New Zealand Central Otago styles are ideal for this type of cheese.

Pairing tip:
For a more intense pairing, choose a richer, cave-aged Gruyère to pair with a mature, earthy Burgundy.

Few pairings are as age-old and tried and tested as Port and blue cheeses like Stilton. The intense sweet notes and rich mouthfeel of the wine contrasts the bold, pungent, saline character of the cheese. Whether vintage, late bottled vintage, or tawny, the Port brings rich, concentrated fruit, warming spice, and luxuriant sweet tones that stand toe-to-toe with the cheese’s robustness, creating a lavish, balanced contrast. Definitely one of many perfect wine and cheese matches!

Why do they work?

Port features:

• red fruit
• black fruit
• fig
• chocolate
• coffee
• cinnamon
• tobacco
• balancing acidity
• velvety texture

Stilton features:

• savory umami
• creaminess
• powerful tangy notes
• earthy nuttiness
• peppery hints

Best choices:

For a memorable Port pairing, our top picks are Stilton, Gorgonzola Piccante. For a bolder match, Roquefort. Vintage, LBV, or a 10 or 20-year Tawny are all Ports that match these gloriously picquant blue cheeses.

Pairing tip:
For an ideal balance, serve the cheese slightly cool and the wine just below room temperature.

What are wine and cheese pairing principles?

• Match intensity
• Contrast texture
• Balance salt and sweet
• Honor local pairings
• Let the cheese’s milkiness guide your wine choice.

One of life’s simplest yet most profound pleasures is an unforgettable wine and cheese pairing. Cheers to these five classic wine pairing tips, elevating your next get-together or private moment!

For Association de la Sommellerie Internationale President William Wouters’ cheese pairing guide, read our recent interview.

Want to read more? Take a look at some of our other blogs here:

• • Five fabulous Grenache pairings
  • Groundbreaking tech for perfect pairings
  • Five international Cabernet Sauvignon food pairings