author of Laura Werlin

What better way to celebrate a crisp fall day than a picnic? The BMW PICNIC TOTE ($120, bmw-online.com) is our choice for carrying your outdoor dining essentials. It’s packed with everything you need but the cheese and wine. For that, we spoke to cheese guru Laura Werlin, author of Laura Werlin’s Cheese Essentials, at this year’s Food & Wine Classic in Aspen. Her suggestions: a five-cheese lineup that includes a triple-cream cheese, a goat cheese, an aged sheep's-milk cheese, a blue cheese, and a cloth-wrapped cheddar, such as Cabot Clothbound Cheddar. For wine, try a riesling, which Werlin calls “cheese friendly.”