Cheese and Fizz – A Sparkling Guide
Sparkling wine and cheese are a perfect match — the bright acidity, lively bubbles and rich regional character of these wines make them ideal partners for everything from soft and creamy to bold blue cheeses. For anyone planning a festive gathering, these pairings offer an effortless way to create a beautifully balanced cheese and wine board this Christmas. In this guide, we explore famous sparkling wines from across Europe and match each one with standout cheeses you can include on your board, helping you serve combinations that feel seasonal, celebratory and brilliantly delicious.
Champagne, France
Champagne is the benchmark for refined sparkling wine, celebrated for its precision, complexity and long ageing, which bring notes of citrus, apple, brioche and chalky minerality. Its bright acidity and fine mousse make it one of the world’s most food-friendly wines – especially with rich, creamy cheeses. This is where Langres and Chaource shine.
Langres, with its signature sunken top, even has a long-held tradition of pouring Champagne directly into the top, allowing the wine to soak gently into the rind and intensify its savoury depth.
Chaource, produced within the Champagne region itself, is an equally natural partner. Its buttery texture and delicate mushroomy notes echo Champagne’s finesse, creating a beautifully regional, harmonious pairing.
Crémant, France
Crémant wines, made across regions such as the Loire, Alsace and Burgundy, offer elegance and craftsmanship at a more approachable price than Champagne. Their fine bubbles, balanced acidity and gentle floral and almond notes make them excellent partners for both bold and delicate cheeses.
Roquefort, with its intense salt and blue-veined richness, softens under Crémant’s freshness while the wine’s bubbles keep the palate lively.
Selles-sur-Cher, an ash-coated Loire goat’s cheese, finds harmony with Crémant’s citrus and floral lift. The pairing highlights the cheese’s chalky minerality, making it feel clean, refined and distinctly French.
Prosecco, Italy
Prosecco is loved for its bright, fruit-driven character — light bubbles, fresh pear and apple, and an easy, approachable style that makes it wonderfully versatile. This gentle, fragrant profile works particularly well with cheeses that bring a little savoury punch, which is why Pecorino is such a successful match.
Pecorino’s firm texture and salty edge are softened by Prosecco’s sweetness and orchard-fruit lift, while the wine’s freshness brightens the cheese’s richness. The result is a simple, refreshing pairing where each element enhances the other.
Asti, Italy
Asti’s sweet, aromatic style — full of peach, apricot, honey and orange blossom — makes it one of Italy’s most distinctive sparkling wines. Light, playful and low in alcohol, it excels when paired with cheeses that benefit from a contrast of sweetness and acidity.
Gorgonzola works beautifully here: Asti’s fruity sweetness rounds the cheese’s salt and spice, creating a luxurious sweet-savoury balance.
Taleggio shares the same northern Italian heritage as Asti and pairs elegantly with the wine’s floral charm. This sparkling wine brightens Taleggio’s creamy core and highlights its subtle fruity notes for a soft, harmonious finish.
Cava, Spain
Cava offers exceptional value while using the same traditional method as Champagne. Its combination of citrus, stone fruit, almond and subtle pastry notes gives it both brightness and depth, making it superb with Spanish cheeses in particular.
Manchego, firm and gently nutty, mirrors Cava’s clean structure and benefits from the wine’s palate-cleansing acidity.
Monte Enebro, a bold, tangy goat’s cheese with a distinctive mould-ripened rind, finds balance in Cava’s citrus and almond character. The wine reins in the intensity while enhancing the cheese’s herbal, lemony finish — a pairing that feels unmistakably Spanish.
English Sparkling Wine
England’s cool climate and chalky soils are producing sparkling wines of remarkable precision and energy, with flavours of green apple, lemon zest, toasted brioche and mineral backbone. These qualities give English sparkling wine the structure needed to stand up to full-flavoured British cheeses.
Montgomery’s Cheddar, rich, savoury and traditionally clothbound, meets its match in the wine’s acidity and finesse. The bubbles cut through the cheddar’s depth while the toasty notes echo its nutty core.
Isle of Wight Blue, creamy with a gentle blue tang, pairs beautifully too — the wine’s freshness lifts the creaminess and highlights the cheese’s subtle spice.
