The 2022 version of Green Bay, Wis.-based BelGioioso Cheese’s Mozza Palooza promotion will be bigger than ever.

Mozza Palooza will feature merchandising assistance for retailers to create displays from mid-June through August. The campaign includes a website complete with inspirational recipes including fresh mozzarella and burrata.  Instore point of sale kits with QR codes driving consumers to the site are also available.

Retailers can choose a custom mix of items including pearls, balls, sliced mozzarella and burrata for their instore promotions.

“Retailers create a total deli department event to maximize Fresh Mozzarella sales during the prime summer selling season,” said Sean Moran, BelGioioso’s vice president of sales.   “Previous events have driven a 50 to 60% increase in fresh mozzarella and burrata sales for many participants.”

Pairing up

Cross-merchandising fine cheeses with wine, beer and other beverages is a great way to stimulate interest in the category. Here are tips from Wisconsin Cheese on what drinks works best with some top cheeses:

Aged cheddar: There’s a lot of flavor and texture going on with aged cheddar, so you want a drink that stands up to that but doesn’t overpower it. We like off-dry, mature beverages that have just a touch of sweetness like saison ale, cider, bock and Belgian ales. For wine, we recommend riesling, chardonnay and champagne (whites) and syrah, pinot noir and chianti (reds). Bourbon and single malt scotch are always sure bets too.

Baby swiss: It’s hard to do baby swiss wrong, unless you try to pair it with something too sweet. We never hesitate to pull out the wine and beer for collaborations with baby swiss. Beers that pair well include stout, porter, weiss beer and lager. Wines that enjoy babysitting: oaked or unoaked chardonnay, grüner veltliner, champagne and cava.

Gouda: Depending on whether your gouda is young, aged, smoked or flavor infused, we tend to enjoy it with slightly sweet beverages that complement its nutty, slightly fruity flavor. Drinks that fit that bill include bock, brown ale, farmhouse hard cider, gewürztraminer, müller-thurgau, riesling, champagne or cava and all different young to long-in-the-tooth sherries.

Parmesan: Serious cheese deserves serious drinks, so we like to pair parmesan with chianti, pinot noir, malbec, syrah, champagne, prosecco and riesling. We also like the strong stuff with it including grappa, nocino, sherry and madeira.

Gorgonzola: Nothing but big flavor all-around for heavyweight gorgonzola. For beer, pair it with stout, porter and Belgian ales. Wines that match gorgonzola’s boldness include cab sauv, chianti, pinot noir, merlot, red zinfandel, riesling and malbec. If you want a sipper with your gorgonzola, we recommend port, madeira, scotch, tequila reposado, tequila anejo and definitely mescal.