We don’t always think of cheese as a dessert offering, but various bleu cheeses paired with late harvest or port wines can make for a beautiful tray for after-dinner fare.

Soft, tangy, ripe, earthy, peppery, tingly, pungent, creamy, sharp, spicy: all these descriptions can describe various types of bleu cheeses readily available in our local markets and specialty shops.

Los Olivos Grocery has a Saint Agur that is worth every penny you’ll pay for it. Made from cow’s milk from Auvergne, France, this sweet bleu cheese is cream-colored, soft and spreadable, with a crunchy, spicy, bright blue mold. The finish is tingly, and absolutely delicious; tangy and creamy at the same time. It melts in your mouth; a very buttery, dainty little cheese for being so strong. At room temperature, it is so wonderful; light on the tongue, salty, moldy, and spicy — everything I love. Is your mouth watering yet?

Try this with either Lucas & Lewellen’s Silver King Port or their 2005 Late Harvest Sauvignon Blanc. The “Silver King” name honors the original Lucas family table grape label. This luscious port is blended from Merlot grapes grown in their Los Alamos Vineyard. This dessert wine displays ripe black cherry aromas and jammy plum with black raspberry flavors — a Ventura County Fair “Best of Show” winner and “Judges’ Choice.”

In exceptional years, when conditions are just right for the growth of botrytis (the “noble rot”), Louis allows carefully selected Sauvignon Blanc grapes to mature to a high level of deliciously concentrated flavor. Grapes for this wine were hand harvested at 35 degrees brix, cold fermented, and allowed to stop fermenting naturally at 14 percent residual sugar. Full of ripe honey, peach, nectarine, orange blossom and pineapple fruit aromas and flavors, this wine is ready to enjoy by itself, or with a wide choice of desserts. It comes in 375 ml bottles, and scored a “92” at www.RedWineBuzz.com.

Enjoy for the upcoming “Holy Days.”

John David Finley is a freelance writer and author of the cookbook “Sacred Meals from our Family Table,” which features Santa Barbara County wines. He can be reached at sacredmeals@comcast.net. For information, visit www.sacredmeals.com.

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