Over the long weekend, I am looking forward to spending leisurely nights sipping wine and eating cheese out on the deck with my family. While I love to keep nights like these casual, I still have my list of essentials for a gorgeous and delicious spread. So today I partnered with Sterling Vineyards Wines to create this picture perfect scene. A huge fan of their wine for some time now {you may remember I featured their Brut on FH here}, I can’t get enough of their Sauvignon Blanc for summer. It is so light, crisp, and dry {or more technically as the bottle states… has hints of grapefruit, lemon blossom and pineapple!}. It pairs incredibly well with seafood and especially yummy appetizers of cheese.

For this spread I paired the Sterling Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc with a cheese tray of gruyere cheese and red grapes, but it also pairs well with Mozzarella if you prefer something more bland and light. {Btw, I found this amazing Wine and Cheese Pairing guide on WineMag.com, check it out here}.

When it comes to entertaining outdoors, I highly recommend serving cheese on a board that has a lid {I bought my marble cheese dome at Crate & Barrel!}; that way you don’t have to worry about flies or bugs circulating your spread. Next a great ice bucket is in order to keep your wine chilled. While mine is no longer available, here are a couple other options I love here, here, and here. Then while I love fresh flowers, how gorgeous is a cluster of candles on a tray! I bought these at Pottery Barn and rarely light them because they are so pretty on their own! I have had them on my covered patio for over 9 months and they are shockingly resilient to humidity, so if you are looking for a decorative element to add to your outdoor space that is low maintenance, these are a great idea. Last but not least are your wine glasses. I go back and forth on this a lot whether to use glass or not outdoors, and I usually decide based on my night’s plans. One drink before dinner equates to glass, a long night with multiple glasses, I go with Tritan, a plastic type material that looks like glass, but won’t shatter or break like glass!

Wishing everyone a Happy 4th of July and a wonderful weekend outdoors with loved ones!

Thank you to Sterling Vineyards Wine for sponsoring this post.

Photography by Yesi of Simply Lively