National Wine and Cheese Day Date in the current year: July 25, 2024

Wine and cheese have been staples in many cultures around the globe for millennia. In many wine-producing regions, local wines were paired with local cheeses because the sharp or, on the contrary, delicate flavor of cheeses balanced out the acid and tannins in wines, magnifying and enhancing each other’s taste and aromas.

However, the pairing of wine and cheese as we know it began to truly develop in the 19th century thanks to the mass production of cheeses and wines, which made different wines and cheeses widely available to consumers outside of their regions of origin.

National Wine and Cheese Day was created by freelance writer and editor Jace Shoemaker-Galloway, who has also created a bunch of other holidays such as National Snack Day, National Cocktail Day, National White Wine Day, Red Wine Day, Pumpkin Bread Day, and more. A big wine-lover, Shoemaker-Galloway wanted to celebrate one of the most delightful combinations of food and drink.

Celebrate National Wine and Cheese Day by attending a wine and cheese tasting or a food and wine pairing class. If there are no such events near you, invite your friends over for a wine and cheese party and have some fun figuring out your favorite wine and cheese combinations. Here are some tips that might make finding the perfect pairing a little easier.

• Tip #1. Intense wines should be paired with sharply flavored cheeses, where as lighter wines taste better with delicately flavored cheeses. In other words, strength calls for strength, and delicacy calls for delicacy. You don’t want the wine to overpower the cheese, or vice versa.
• Tip #2. Red wines with high tannin levels match nicely with aged cheeses.
• Tip #3. Cheeses with a strong odor, commonly referred to as stinky or funky cheeses, taste better when paired with sweet wines.
• Tip #4. Sparkling wines are perfect palate cleansers for soft, creamy cheeses.
• Tip #5. Wines and cheeses from the same region typically pair really well.
• Tip #6. When in doubt, go for firm, nutty cheeses such as Gouda, Gruyère or Emmental. They pair well with most wines.

Here’s a list of tried and tested wine and cheese pairings for you to start with if you’re not quite ready to experiment on your own: Pinot Noir and Gruyère, port and blue cheese (Blue Stilton, Gorgonzola, Roquefort), sparkling wine and Brie or Camembert, Tempranillo and Idiazabal, Sauvignon Blanc and goat cheese, Cabernet Sauvignon and aged Cheddar or Gouda, rosé and Mozzarella or Havarti, Riesling and Raclette cheese, and Malbec or Shiraz (Syrah) and Gouda.

National Wine and Cheese Day is also a great occasion to pick up a book about pairing wines and cheeses (for example, Cheese & Wine: A Guide to Selecting, Pairing, and Enjoying by Janet Fletcher) and encourage other people to indulge in some wine and cheese by posting on social media with the hashtag #NationalWineAndCheeseDay.