The Ideal Summer Cheese Plate

Milk that dairy animals produce after months of eating grass imparts extraordinary flavor to late-summer cheeses, which are great with these homemade condiments:

Pickled Grapes with Walnuts

Lemon-Fennel Compote

Milk that dairy animals produce after months of eating grass imparts extraordinary flavor to late-summer cheeses, which are great with store-bought or homemade condiments.

Lize Thorpe of NYC's Murray's Cheese recommends these five: The first three are firm and nutty, so they pair well with lush summer fruit; the last two take advantage of rich summer milk.

This funky cow-milk cheese from Vermont is washed in a dark Belgian-style ale, giving it a slight fruity flavor.

Rogue Creamery Smoky Blue Cold-smoking over hazelnut shells adds nuttiness to the milky, caramelly flavors in this sharp Oregon blue.

L'Etivaz In the Swiss Alps, 72 farmers banded together to make this version of Gruyère, using Alpine-pastured cow milk and copper cauldrons.