If there is one thing that truly never goes out of style, it is the age-old pairing of wine and cheese. Something about it is just… (chefs kiss!) Whether relaxing after a long day or entertaining friends, you can build a low-stress, yet impressive and delicious, charcuterie board at home. All you need to have is a board and access to a grocery store! A good cheese board tastes good, but a great cheese board also looks great!
As wine lovers and producers, we wanted to be able to provide you with some trusted wine and cheese pairings. The selected cheeses below are hands-down some of our favorites and have been tested to match perfectly with Harney Lane wine. We believe that if you have fabulous cheeses that shine, we believe the other food on your board will follow. We hope you will use our guide below to create a charcuterie board filled with cheese and other goodies that will complement our wine effortlessly. Sip back, and enjoy the process!
Pick out your cheese! It may not everyone’s prerogative, but we believe great cheese should be the center and most important piece of your board. Source what you can from our list created below or peruse your local grocery store to find some of your own treasures!
Humboldt Fog paired with Dry Rose
A decadent, semi-soft pasteurized goat’s milk cheese from Arcata, California. This cheese is luscious and full of flavor, matching with our refreshing and brambly Dry Rosé.
Cooper’s Hill / Cotswald paired with Home Ranch Chardonnay
This is a cow’s milk, double-Gloucester cheese from the United Kingdom. It has a beautiful creamy texture with small bits of chives and onions, giving it a savory taste that pairs wonderfully with our silky and creamy Home Ranch Chardonnay.
Barely Buzzed paired with Lizzy James, Old Vine Zinfandel
A marriage of coffee and lavender, this cheese is a memorable cow’s milk cheddar from Utah. Once you taste it for yourself, it will easily prove itself as an award-winning cheese. The flavor is not overwhelming but has traces of butterscotch and caramel. We confidently pair this with our beloved Lizzy James, Old Vine Zinfandel.
Cinco Lanzas paired with Home Ranch Tempranillo
An undeniably delicious Spanish cheese made from pasteurized sheep, goat, and cow milk. It is a hard cheese with a crystalline texture, aged for 16 months with a sharp taste. With our earthy, spicy Tempranillo, these two comingle for a lovely pairing.
Huntsman Cheese paired with Lizzy James Port
This funky-looking cheese is a blend of two kinds of cheese, Gloucester and Stilton blue, both produced in the English countryside. Layering the two makes for a powerful presentation, bursting with flavor.
Depending on the type of cheese, soft or hard, will determine how it should be presented on your board. For hard cheeses, we recommend pre-cutting the wedge for your guests. Taking this extra step will ensure that all guests can easily graze from your board without making a mess or having difficulty cutting off their own pieces. People are also more likely to try it if is easy for them to pick up! If you are using soft cheese, we recommend leaving it in its whole form. Brie cheese or a log of goat cheese can be an exception to this rule if you cut large pieces that people can handpick without making a mess.
Being that your cheese will most likely be the largest (and most important) items on your board, you will want to place those wedges first. Spread out your cheeses on the board. If there is color variation, try to place different colored cheeses next to each other. Leave a large amount of space between all of the cheeses.
Add your second largest items to your board. We recommend this being anything in a small bowl or vessel. These pieces will fill up your board very quickly! Small bowls will help to create visual interest and are a great way to keep your condiments or sticking/oily items from touching other items. Choose from any of the items suggested below into a small bowl or container and space them out on the board.
Our Recommendations for your board:
Castelvetrano or Kalamata Olives
Hot Honey
Pepper Jelly
Fig jam
Ground mustard seed or Gourmet mustard
Cornichon Pickles
Marinated artichoke hearts
Pepperoncini
Hummus
Special dips
Pâté
Tapenade
Mozzarella Balls
Add in some fatty soft meats like prosciutto and some hard meats such as dry-cured salami. Italian Sopressata and Coppa are also great options to add to the diversity of the spread. You can roll it up, fold it into quarters, make a salami “rose,” stack, or loosely display all the meat. You can see here that we chose to place the salami in a small bowl to keep it held together. Another way to keep the salami tight is to create small “rivers” between cheeses by folding the salami into quarters and placing it sitting up on the board. Ensure the meat is also spread out across the board and not all in one corner.
Our Recommendations for your board:
Prosciutto
Rillets
Saucisson Sec
Sopressata
Genoa Salami
Mortadella
Coppa
Calabrese
Chorizo
Crackers, baguettes, breadsticks, sliced pita, or really anything that looks like a carb! Add those. It is fun to have various sizes, shapes, and textures of crackers and bread that guests can spread with cheese and jam, or use as a palette cleanser. Enjoy finding various crackers at the store that will add to the overall aesthetic!
Our Recommendations for your board:
Water Crackers
Pita Crackers
Artisan Crackers
Crostini
Raincoat Crisps
Breadsticks
Croccantini
Sourdough Flatbread Crackers
Croissants
Garnish with fresh fruit or veggies! You can really take the liberty to choose almost any fruit at the grocery store. Generally, look for seasonal fruit, if possible, to guarantee freshness, or to help convey a theme if you are making a seasonal board. For example, if I am making a “Fall” board, we would recommend persimmons and pomegranates. Otherwise, choose fruit that varies in color and is bright, and will add pops of color to your board. When it comes to vegetables, try to stick to those recommended below. Veggies can feel a bit out of place. After all, this is a cheese board, not a veggie tray! No Ranch here.
Using fruit is great to add color to your board, but if you have the time, it can be fun to cut your fruit in a very eye-appealing way! You can cut your strawberries in half, use half of an apple, cut open half of a pomegranate, or use a whole persimmon. It is ok to add some things to your board just to make it pretty! It doesn’t all have to be practical.
Our Recommendations for your board:
Raspberries
Blueberries
Strawberries
Apples
Persimmons
Grapes
Blackberries
Figs
Oranges
Dates
Pomegranates
Cherry Tomatoes
Small Cucumbers
Colorful Carrots
Fillers! Always have some of these on deck. We suggest keeping your cupboards stocked with some different options. Grab handfuls of these snacks and scatter them throughout the holes in your board. Leave no open spaces! Our current charcuterie board style is “more is more.”
Our Recommendations for your board:
Candied Pecans
Honey Roasted Peanuts
Cashews
Chocolate Chips
Dark Chocolate Pieces
Dried Cranberries
Raisins
Dried apricots
Pistachios
Chocolate Covered Almonds
Chocolate Espresso Beans
Before serving your beautiful, decadent board to your guests, be sure to add in all the necessary utensils. You can add some funky small cheese knives, a spoon, or even a small wooden honey dipper. Don’t be afraid to mix and match textures and colors, it adds to the overall interest and detail of the board!
Pour up a glass of vino and celebrate this season of abundance! We hope this handbook helps create ease and provides you with some inspiration the next time you plan to host your loved ones. Cheers!
