Farmstead’s cheese plate features Comte Saint Antoine, bottom right, Woodcock Farm’s Weston Wheel, bottom left, Blue Ledge Farm’s Lake’s Edge, top left, Cato Corner Farm’s Black Ledge Blue, top center, and Brescianella Stagionata. Also, date and walnut cake, La Laitierie’s house-candied nuts, sweet pepper jam, apple fennel chutney and micro green cress.

THE PROVIDENCE JOURNAL / Gretchen Ertl

Being a great fan of cheese plates for both their appetizing visual appeal and delectable treats, I asked Matt Jennings of Farmstead in Providence’s Wayland Square to suggest the perfect one for the Thanksgiving holiday. Now if you don’t want to do it on the day, it can be a welcoming appetizer as friends or family arrive on Wednesday night. It can also be part of a weekend dinner as the turkey leftovers start to fade.

Jennings also suggested pairings of wine and beer for each item on the cheese plate. This kind of pairing has been utmost on Jennings mind since Farmstead expanded by opening La Laitierie, a restaurant next door. Man cannot live by cheese alone. Jennings, along with Stefan Ziewacz, beverage manager of La Laitierie, and Terrance Geary, head cheese monger and retail manager, designed a contemporary take on the traditional Thanksgiving cheese plate for a Rhode Island holiday.

Start with the Rule of Five, or 5 cheeses as the base for any cheese plate.

“Three or four is adequate, but having five cheeses really allows you to take a sampling of different styles, varieties, ages and flavor profiles,” he said. “For example, you are able to try a cow, sheep, goat, blue and a washed rind.”

The five cheeses are Comté Saint Antoine, Woodcock Farm’s Weston Wheel, Blue Ledge Farm’s Lake’s Edge, Cato Corner Farm’s Black Ledge Blue and Brescianella Stagionata.

All cheese plates benefit from a few added goodies in order to complement the cheeses and paired beverages. For Thanksgiving, some nice treats are: dried fig, sliced almond cake, dried cherries steeped in equal amounts of red wine and sugar, Membrillo, traditional Spanish quince paste, candied nuts, Rhode Island honey, wine jellies or balsamic vinegar jelly, date bread, preserves, local jams and such seasonal fruits as pears, apples, cranberries or quince. Don’t forget the crusty, local breads or crackers.

The beverage list includes 2002 Arbois L’etoile or Northcoast Brewery’s Red Seal Ale (for the Comte Saint Antoine); 2004 Nigl Gruner Veltliner or Victory Brewing Prima Pilsner (for the Weston Wheel), 2003 La Craie Vouvray or 2002 Wesport Rivers’ Brut Cuvée RJR (for the Lake’s Edge); 2004 Terre Rouge Syrah or Berkshire Brewing Company’s Coffeehouse Porter (with Black Ledge Blue), and Kaesler Vineyards’ 2002 Touriga Nacional or Sakonnet Vineyard’s N/V Sirius, Sweet Harvest Wine (for the Brescianella Stagionata).

Here are some details.

Comté Saint Antoine is aged in the former French army barracks of Fort Saint Antoine in Jura, France, and produced by a cooperative of dairy farmers. The raw cows’ milk cheese has a firm, supple texture which melts in the mouth, leaving behind flavors of caramelized onion, hazelnut, butterscotch and chocolate. The 2002 Arbois L’etoile is also from the Jura region and has a nutty, sherry-like aroma that creates what Jennings calls “the perfect environmental tasting.”

Conversely, if beer is your choice, the Red style ale from North Coast Brewery, Red Seal is full-bodied, bright copper in color, and has a long, spicy finish and the carbonation does wonders for this cheese, as it breaks up and softens the intense creamy quality.

Husband and wife, Gari and Mark Fischer of Woodcock Farms, in Weston, Vt., handcraft their artisan cheese from their flock of East Friesian sheep. This cheese has the texture of a finely aged artisan Manchego, flaky but still soft, and brimming with flavors of hay, sweet milk, toasted almonds and caramel.

It pairs well with Gruner Veltliner, a food-friendly wine with a sharp intensity, rich, ripe fruit and a bracing, long finish.

The beer Prima Pils has lots of hops which give this pale lager a herbal bite over layers of soft and smooth malt flavor. It is dry and crisp.

Hannah Sessions and Greg Bernhardt own and operate Blue Ledge Farm, in Leicester, Vt. Lake’s Edge is a raw milk, unpasteurized, mold-ripened cheese, aged over 60 days with a strong flavor that is quite tangy at times. It tends to ripen from the outside in so you can always be assured of a ripe and runny edge with a slightly flaky center.

Historically one of France’s largest cheese producing areas, the Loire Valley is best known for the goat’s milk cheeses that are created there. So pairing this Vermont goat’s milk cheese with a Vouvray from the Loire Valley, in France — a 2003 La Craie seems appropriate. The wine is crafted from Chenin Blanc grapes — those of subtle flavors, including apricot, peach, spice, wildflower and honey. A second choice is the 2002 Brut Cuvée RJR from Westport Rivers with ripe apple, pear, toast and vanilla make it perfect to pair with the tangy and creamy Lake’s Edge.

Cato Corner Farm is in Colchester, Conn., and since 1997, Mark Gillman has been mastering the art of making aged cheeses from a herd of pasture-fed Jersey cows. His cheeses have won awards at the American Cheese Society Conference. His take on neo-traditional blue cheese, results in Black Ledge Blue, aged around three months and salty, crumbly, sticky, aromatic and thickly veined. Black Ledge has flavors of garlic, spring onion, and sea salt. California’s 2004 Terre Rouge Syrah wine has a rusty-ruby red color, and has flavors of pepper, herb, smoke, dark cherry and cinnamon. But an excellent carbonated pairing is Berkshire Brewing Company’s Coffeehouse Porter from South Deerfield, Mass. It’s a full-bodied dark ale with pleasant chocolate/roasted malt flavor with a slight malty sweetness that is balanced with a delicate hop bitterness, flavor and aroma. A special blend of an organic coffee extract is added at the last minute.

Brescianella Stagionata is an example of a washed rind cheese. A close relative to the Italian cheese

Taleggio, this pasteurized cheese is soft and stinky and from Lombardy, Italy. The cheese literally gets washed with (in this case) a brine solution of salt and water. This process enhances the cheese’s flavor, as well as helps it develop aging capabilities. It leaves you with the flavors of green grass and fresh cream.

The dessert wine choice is Australia’s Kaesler Vineyards’ Touriga Nacional made with Touriga grapes which are used to make fortified wine.

If you wanted to stick to a white-based dessert wine, then look toward Little Compton. Sakonnet Vineyards. The ripest grapes grown on the estate vineyards, and the honeysuckle, pear and vanilla qualities pairs perfectly with the luscious, rich and salty cheese. If you are not a drinker, a sparkling cider goes wonderfully with this particular cheese.

Details: Farmstead/La Laiterie at Farmstead, 186/188 Wayland Ave., Providence, (401) 274-7177, www.farmsteadinc.com.