Buy Tickets to “Cheese the Day!” in Santa Barbara

Pairing The Cheese Shop’s Selections with Winemakers and Chefs on May 7 and 14

Winemakers and chefs came together to sample cheeses and pick the best pairings | Photo: Ingrid Bostrom

Get ready to travel the world of cheese while exploring the finest of Santa Barbara’s wines from the comfort of the Kimpton Canary rooftop in May, as the Santa Barbara Independent and The Cheese Shop host two “Cheese the Day” pairing parties as part of the newspaper’s Wine Week 2025.

Cheers to an evening of wine and cheese | Photo: Ingrid Bostrom

Based on the format of a private event organized last year by Michael Delgado, the events on May 7 and 14 will gather eight cheeses, presented by The Cheese Shop’s co-owner Kathryn Graham; pair them with four specially selected wines introduced by their winemakers (classic S.B. varieties on night one; vanguard varieties on night two); and then invite two restaurant proprietors/chefs to discuss how each pairing worked.

The May 7 event, which will feature bouchon’s Mitchell Sjerven and Caruso’s Shibani Mone as our food experts, will showcase Storm Wines’ chardonnay with the Merry Goat Round (goat’s milk brie from Maryland) and Sogn Tomme (sheep’s milk from Minnesota); Future Perfect’s pinot noir with Cabra al Romero (Spanish goat’s milk) and Piave (Italian cow’s milk); Margerum’s syrah with Midnight Moon (goat’s milk, Holland) and St. Agur (cow’s milk blue, France); and King Carey’s cabernet sauvignon with two raw cow’s milk cheeses, Bava Sbagliato from Germany and Cabot Clothbound from Vermont.

On May 14, with Little Dom’s Brandon Boudet and Gala’s Tara Penke in tow, The Cheese Shop will pair Kunin’s chenin blanc with two goat cheeses, Shabby Shoe from Wisconsin and Chabrin from France; Lepiane’s malvasia bianca with Andante Crottin (a goat’s milk from California) and Pecorino Fioretto (raw sheep’s milk from Italy); Pali Wine’s gamay noir with two cow’s milk cheeses, Holey Cow from California and Prairie Breeze from Iowa; and Frequency’s graciano with two French cheeses, the sheep’s milk Ossau-Iraty and the double-cream cow’s milk St. Felicien.

I asked The Cheese Shop owner and our Cheese Sommelier for the night, Kathryn Graham, a bit more about what we can expect on those evenings.

What’s so interesting about pairing wine with cheese?

Cheese and wine pairing is fun and interesting because when you find a great pairing it, brings out entirely new flavors in both the wine and the cheese. So, you are essentially getting three unique flavor experiences.

A cheese pairing sample | Photo: Ingrid Bostrom

What do you hope guests learn from the events?

There are definitely a few general rules that one can follow when it comes to wine and cheese pairing, but really, everybody has a unique palate and varied tastes. Therefore, it’s important to remember that ultimately, it’s what you as an individual enjoy that matters most.

Are there any special rules to pairing cheese or cheese types to wines?

There are some general rules that one can follow when pairing cheese and wine. But they are not hard-and-fast rules, mostly because both cheese and wine are handmade foods that change from batch to batch in the case of cheese and year to year in the case of wine.

Having said that, the Europeans often say, “What grows together goes together.” So, cheeses and wines from the same region tend to be natural pairings. A good example of this would be white wines from the Loire region of France and fresh to semi-aged goat’s milk cheeses from the Loire.

Another general rule is that sparkling wines tend to be the easiest styles to pair since the bubbles create a great textural contrast to the butterfat in the cheese. When it comes to white wines, you want to pair higher-acid whites with cheese, since the acid will cut through the richness of the cheese. And for those who love red wines, lighter, more fruit-forward wines tend to work better since they won’t overpower the cheese and also contrast the saltiness.

Are Santa Barbara wines uniquely good at this?

In general, S.B. County wines are a bit easier to pair with cheese since they tend to be lower alcohol and higher acidity than their counterparts to the north, in, say, Paso Robles or Napa County. Richer, oakier whites and heavier-bodied reds with big tannins can be quite difficult to pair with a wide variety of cheeses, since they often overpower a lot of them. It’s not to say that you can’t pair them with cheese, but it’s not an easy endeavor.

See independent.com/cheesethedaytickets for details and tickets.