Christmas Port and Cheese Tasting

The Thames Valley Local Wine School is hosting a Christmas Port and Cheese Tasting at the Reading Biscuit Factory on Wednesday 16 December, and it's exactly what it sounds like: six different ports, six different cheeses, and a good bit of talk about why they work together.

The whole evening is built around the classic pairing of Port and Stilton, and you'll find out why that combination has stuck around. You'll work your way through six distinct styles of Port — chilled White Port, Tawny, Late Bottled Vintage, Ruby, Crusted and Vintage — each matched with its own cheese, ranging from light and crumbly to rich and salty blue. Along the way, the host explains how Port is made and how to pair food with sweet wines, so it's as much about learning as it is about tasting.

The session is run by the Thames Valley Local Wine School, which also puts on cheese and wine matching evenings. The venue, Reading Biscuit Factory, sits in the Broad Street Mall on the corner of Oxford Road and Queens Walk in the heart of Reading town centre. It's a three-screen cinema, bar, coffee shop, live performance space and community hub, fully accessible and aimed at being a welcoming place to relax, work, meet and create all under one roof.

It runs from 7:00pm and lasts two hours, with tickets at £55.00.