It’s that time of year again where the Girl Scouts can be found in dress uniform in front of grocery stores hocking boxes of sugary goodness to strangers, parents share on their social media accounts begging friends to buy their kids’ cookies, and the typical slew of lists are released online with Girl Scout Cookie and Wine Pairing ideas.
Those lists drive me crazy because they are always pairing cookies with dry, acidic and tannic wines, like Thin Mints and Cabernet Sauvignon – which must be one of the worst pairings ever! Sugar is one of the most difficult pairing elements on a plate. Sugar coats the palate and makes dry wine taste bitter, acidic and lacking in fruit. When it comes to pairing wine with sweet foods, the rule of thumb is that the wine should be as sweet or sweeter than the food as a sweeter wine will be able to stand up to the sugar in your food.
However, when you’re doing a Girl Scout Cookie and Wine Pairing, if you poured exclusively sweet dessert wines you’d fall into a diabetic coma pretty quickly! Luckily, there are ways to play with wine pairing selections that have smaller – sometimes unnoticeable – amounts of sugar, or characteristics that make them appear sweet when they actually have little to no sugar. To put sugar into context, Coca-Cola contains approximately 95 grams per liter of sugar. Now let’s check out these pairing suggestions…
Prosecco with Trefoils and Toast Yays
Ca’ Furlan Prosecco DOC Extra Dry Prosecco Cuvée Beatrice, $12
Prosecco is much fresher and fruitier than Champagne, and often sweeter. This wine is “Extra Dry” meaning it contains slightly more sugar than a Brut style of sparkling wine. In this case, 14g of residual sugar. This isn’t enough to be noticeable on the palate, especially since the mouthwatering acidity of the wine completely balances out the sugar, but is just enough to tame the negative effects of sugar can have with a dry wine. Prosecco works here because the fresh bubbles cleanse the palate after rich, buttery shortbread of the Trefoils. As for the Toast Yays, bubbles and french toast = brunch!
Off-Dry Riesling and Lemonades
Nik Weis Urban Riesling, $15
German Rieslings historically have some residual sugar to balance their bracingly tart acidity due to the country’s cool climate. With global warming, we are seeing more dry styles of Riesling coming out of Germany, but sometimes a slightly off-dry wine is a perfect pairing. In this case, the wine contains 15g of residual sugar, which is more noticeable than the Prosecco, but not overtly sweet. This wine is elegant, crisp and fruity with notes of sweet tart tangerine, punchy yellow peach, and a lemon zest finish. The mouthwatering acidity, citrus notes and slight residual sugar work to enhance the lemon flavors of the cookie.
Beaujolais with Peanut Butter Sandwich
Marcel Lapierre Raisins Gaulois, $18
The late Marcel Lapierre is a legendary wine icon in Beaujolais, France. He used techniques that at the time were considered radical: organic viticulture, natural yeasts, minimal or no use of sulfur dioxide, unfiltered bottling. The result is a very light “natural” with pure and bright red fruit flavors, lower alcohol, and is fun and frivolous – a true “glou glou” (glug glug) wine. This wine has no sugar, but it does have loads of fruity red berries, making this pairing like enjoying a peanut butter and strawberry jelly sandwich.
Lambrusco with Thin Mints and Caramel Chocolate Chip
Lini 910 Labrusca Lambrusco, $17
This pairing is a favorite during my wine tasting events, both because it tastes great, but also because its fun surprise that most people have never tasted before. Lambrusco is among the earliest grapes used to produce wine, a staple for Roman armies thousands of years ago when drinking water a likely a death sentence. After gaining a bad reputation in the 1980s for making sweet harsh wines (Riuniti Spumante), it is experiencing a renaissance with drier, savory, high quality styles. With its decadent blend of ripe cherries, blueberries, blackberry compote, sweet herbs and spice, this wine is a great compliment for bitter chocolate and mint (a notoriously difficult wine pairing).
Red Blend with Tagalongs and Adventurefuls
Cooper & Thief Bourbon Barrel Red Blend, $25
Bourbon barrels can only be used once to age bourbon, and must be made of heavily charred American oak. Winemakers are now repurposing these barrels to take advantage of their unique notes of vanilla, caramel, spices, a subtle smoky touch and toasty bourbon spice. Another fan favorite pairing, the vanilla and caramel from Bourbon barrels give the impression of sweetness without added sugar in the wine. The rich, silky smooth dark fruit is a perfect pairing to chocolate anything.
Rivesaltes with Caramel DeLites/Samoas
Terrassous Hors D’age 6 Years Rivesaltes, $23
Our sweetest cookie deserves our sweetest wine. Honestly, any oxidative sweet wine will work wonderfully with this cookie, but a quality aged Tawny Port can sometimes be out of the budget. Instead, opt for a Rivesaltes from Roussillon, France. This is a fortified sweet wine made from White Granache. Neutral grape spirit is added during winemaking to stop fermentation early, leaving sugar in the wine. It is a vibrant, light amber/whiskey color with sweet notes of golden raisins, bitter orange, almond and subtle browned sugar. Aged a minimum of 6 years in old oak barrels not topped up leaves the wine in contact with oxygen creating oxidized notes of caramel and nuts, complimentary the caramel and coconut in the cookie. Don’t be afraid of this wine’s 17.% alcohol or 120g of residual sugar – it tastes quite a bit lighter than expected thanks to its refreshing acidity.
