English Wine
National Cheese and Wine Day: The unhurried art of the British summer cheeseboard
July 9, 2026
There is a particular kind of afternoon that only really happens in late July. The garden has warmed up, nobody is in any hurry, and at some point a board appears on the table. A wedge of something soft, a hunk of good cheddar, a handful of grapes, a bottle gets opened. Then, usually, another.
None of that needs much ceremony. It does, though, deserve a day. And on Saturday 25 July, it gets one: National Cheese and Wine Day.
This isn’t a piece about which wine goes with which cheese. We’ve written that one already, and if you’d like the rules about the acidity, the tannin, the classic matches, our Wine and Cheese Pairing Guide has all of it laid out. This is about something looser: the occasions themselves, and the very British pleasure of a cheeseboard in summer.
A day worth making
National Cheese and Wine Day has been celebrated on 25 July since 2014. It began as a small idea, that two things this good, enjoyed together might merit a spot on the calendar. And it has quietly grown into one of summer’s more agreeable excuses to gather people around a table.
In 2026 it lands on a Saturday, no weeknight scramble, no clearing away before an early start. Just a long, slow afternoon that can drift into evening if it wants to.
You don’t need a sommelier, a pairing chart or a marble board the size of a coffee table. You need good cheese, a bottle you’re fond of, and a few people worth sharing them with. Everything after that is detail.
The British cheeseboard, reimagined for summer
For a long time the cheeseboard in this country was a winter feature. That arrived after Christmas dinner when everyone was already full, port in hand, cracker crumbs everywhere.
Summer has changed its habits. The board has moved outdoors and grown more relaxed. It has stopped being a course and started being the whole point: a centrepiece you graze at for hours rather than a formal finale. Alongside the cheese now sits whatever the season is offering. From strawberries and cherries, a bowl of radishes, cured meats, warm bread, a jar of chutney with the lid left off.
And the wine has changed to match. Where a winter board wanted weight and warmth, a summer one wants lift and freshness. Something cold enough to sweat on the glass, light enough to keep pouring, and easy enough that nobody has to think too hard about it.
That’s the register we make a lot of our English wine in. Our cool maritime climate here in Devon gives our still wines a natural brightness and precision that suits grazing food far better than it suits rules.
Here’s how we’d spend the day, depending on the kind of gathering you’re after.
For the garden party and the barbecue
This is the classic: a table outside, people arriving, a board that keeps getting topped up. The food is doing a lot of jobs at once. Soft cheese for the crackers, something firm to slice, olives, bread, a bit of charcuterie, so the wine’s job is simply to keep everything moving and refresh the palate between mouthfuls.
For this we’d reach for Shoreline, our signature blend and long standing bestseller. It’s the kind of versatile English white that flatters a full board without picking a fight with any one thing on it. The safe, generous choice you can keep pouring all afternoon.
But if there’s one bottle made for exactly this day, it’s Shoreline Rosé 2025. An industry first, crafted from English Bacchus and Pinot Noir, it’s pale salmon pink with lifted aromas of red berries and delicate white flowers, and a palate that’s fragrant with summer berry and floral notes. Light, crisp and easy drinking, textured and balanced, with a fresh, lingering finish. It picked up bronze medals across the board in 2026, at Decanter, the IWSC and WineGB, and it was built for spring and summer tables. Serve it properly cold, and if there’s a cheddar with a spoonful of onion chutney anywhere on the board, this is the bottle that makes the most of it.
And if the barbecue is lit, the board simply becomes part of the spread. Something to graze on while the coals come up to temperature and long after the last thing comes off the grill. Smoky, charred food loves a wine with freshness and a bit of fruit, so a well chilled rosé holds its own here.
And if there’s a smoked cheddar on the board, our Black Cherry Mead has enough richness and depth to stand up to that smokiness surprisingly well, chilled down for twenty minutes or so. It’s the least formal way to mark the day, and often the best.
Because a gathering should begin with a bit of a flourish, a bottle of English sparkling opened as the first guests arrive sets the tone better than almost anything. We’d suggest Brut Reserve NV, whose lively, fruit driven bubbles and crisp acidity are especially good against a dense, nutty cheese like Red Leicester, if you’ve got one on the board.
A quick word on quantities: for a relaxed afternoon, plan on roughly half a bottle per person across the whole gathering, and always open one more than the maths suggests. Cheese is thirsty work.
For the coast and the picnic
We’re spoiled here in East Devon. The Jurassic Coast is close enough that a cheeseboard becomes a rucksack, a blanket and a walk to a good spot. A picnic board wants things that travel well and don’t wilt, and a wine that’s happy served properly cold.
This is where mead earns its place. It’s a genuinely old English drink. It’s honey based, made in this country for centuries before wine ever was. And it happens to be a brilliant picnic companion: no fussy chilling required, and it holds up in a rucksack far better than a delicate white.
Traditional Mead is the all rounder of our range, smooth and honeyed, easy to drink and easy to like. If you’d rather something fruitier, Apple Mead brings a gentle toffee apple sweetness that sits nicely alongside charcuterie and a hard cheese, and travels just as well.
If you’d rather keep things white and fruit forward, our wider range of English country fruit wines leans right into the season and makes a lovely thing to pour when the sun’s out and nobody’s counting.
For the quiet Saturday at home
Not every celebration needs a crowd. Some of the best cheese-and-wine moments involve two people, a smaller board and no plans.
If we were making an occasion of it, we’d bake a whole Camembert. Scored, studded with a little garlic and rosemary, warmed until it collapses into itself. And put it in the middle of the table with bread for dipping and not much else. It’s the least amount of effort, and it turns a cheeseboard into an event without anyone having to try.
Beside it, Covepoint Chardonnay is a rich, elegant white. Pale gold, with expressive aromas of melon, lifted tangerine, orange blossom and delicate floral notes. On the palate it shows bright citrus acidity alongside ripe melon and white stone fruit, with a subtle touch of vanilla from a small oaked component in the blend that brings roundness to the finish. That gentle weight and warmth is exactly what makes it sit so happily next to something molten from the oven. It’s an unfussy, quietly excellent bottle for a table set for two, and the sort of wine that makes a Saturday feel deliberately chosen rather than simply arrived at.
This year, we're pouring mead too
If cheese and wine is the classic pairing, mead is the one we think deserves rediscovering alongside it. It’s honey wine, and it turns out to be a wonderful match for a cheeseboard: rounder and sweeter than most wine, with just enough acidity to keep things fresh rather than cloying.
For National Cheese and Wine Day, we’re offering 15% off our full 75cl mead range. From Traditional and Apple through to Black Cherry and beyond. It’s a good excuse to try something a little different alongside this year’s board.
The one you bring
A bottle of English wine with a wedge of good cheese is, we’d gently suggest, the most reliable gift a guest can bring. It’s welcome without being extravagant, and it says you thought about it.
If you want to go a step further, our Classic Cuvée 2019 is worth seeking out. Its bright acidity and toasted, biscuity character make it a lovely match for a properly mature cheddar. The kind of bottle that turns “thanks for having us” into something a little more memorable.
Every bottle in our range comes with tasting notes, so even if wine isn’t quite the recipient’s specialist subject, they’ve got everything they need to enjoy it properly. A crisp white for the fridge, a light red for later, and you’ve earned your place at the table before the first cork is out.
If you'd rather leave it to us
If all of this sounds lovely but you’d sooner someone else did the pouring, come and see us. Our Cellar Door in East Devon is open Tuesday to Saturday, and there’s no better way to spend a July afternoon than tasting English wine at its source. Our team will walk you through the range side by side, the wines, the fruit wines, the meads, and the coast is close enough to make a proper day of it. We were awarded Travellers’ Choice 2026 on Tripadvisor, and we’d recommend booking ahead in summer.
And if it’s mead rather than wine that catches your eye alongside the cheese, that has a story of its own. You can learn more about our Mead and Cheese Pairing here.
However you mark it
That’s really the heart of National Cheese and Wine Day: not the rules, but the ritual. A board on the table, a cold bottle open, and the particular contentment of people who have nowhere else they need to be.
We make our wines in Devon, from grapes grown in English vineyards, and we’re one of the country’s most awarded producers of English still wine. But on 25 July we’d rather you didn’t think about any of that. Put out the cheese. Pour something you like. Let the afternoon look after itself.
Cheers to that.
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