For the most part, children scare me…except for the ones in the green uniforms selling cookies. I always cave and buy Girl Scout cookies every year, and I rarely share. This year was an exception to being greedy with my cookies, and I brought four boxes to a geek/costuming convention in Dallas to share with friends. I envy those who can process dairy and eat milk and cookies like it’s a normal thing…so since I’m lactose intolerant, I felt like wine was a much better idea than milk. I don’t follow rules, as a general rule (ha!). Here’s what I pulled out of the cellar to pair with each of the four boxes of cookies and what we thought of each pairing (with some notes from the wine producers, because my simple “mmmmm” may not be enough winespeak)…
Concha y Toro Gran Reserva Serie Riberas Cabernet Sauvignon 2016
paired with Peanut Butter Patties (Tagalongs)
Ribera del Tinguiririca in the Colchagua Valley, Chile
$17 (750ml)
Winemaking: The selected bunches are destemmed and gently dropped into stainless steel tanks for fermentation over the course of 8–10 days. Malolactic fermentation takes place naturally. The wine is aged in French oak barrels and foudres. Stabilization takes occurred, without treatments, as the wine ages in the barrels.
Tasting Notes: Dark and deep red wine. Aromas of toasted cherry, cassis, cedar, blackberry, and slight hints of black pepper. Firm with a deep concentration of flavors. A delicate and almost silky texture frames soft tannins, which comes at the beginning of their long finish.
Food Pairing: Oven-roasted lamb, pork, or beef with black pepper sauce and spicy mashed potatoes or spicy sausage with a black olive baguette and Dijon mustard.
Our Cookie Pairing: I paired this wine with these cookies, as generally recommended by multiple sources on Pinterest to pair peanut butter and chocolate with Cabernet Sauvignon. This pairing was absolutely divine! Everyone loved it and if having peanut butter cookies for dinner is wrong, I don’t want to be right!
paired with Thin Mints
California
$10 (750ml)
Tasting Notes: Prophecy Pinot Noir showcases the best of California. Upon the first swirl, this Pinot Noir delights the senses with a bouquet of toasted oak and ripe raspberry. Plush and smooth, the mouthfeel is round and filled with luscious layers of red cherry and strawberry that are complemented by notes of brown spice.
Our Cookie Pairing: I paired this wine with these cookies, as generally recommended by multiple sources on Pinterest to pair Thin Mints with Pinot Noir. Since I don’t usually buy or drink Pinot Noir, I’ll admit that I bought this wine because of the lovely label (designed by artist Victo Ngai, who’s works are featured on all the Prophecy wines). I rather enjoyed this Pinot Noir by itself, and was confused about how odd the cookies and wine tasted when paired together, even though everyone else loved it. So I kept eating the Thin Mints and drinking the Pinot Noir with a sour face until it dawned on me that this earthy red paired with mint just makes sense naturally (was I fighting it?). After that realization, I laughed at myself and really enjoyed the pairing. Hey…wine discovery is a journey, and I’m still learning.
Concha y Toro Gran Reserva Serie Riberas Chardonnay 2016
paired with Shortbread (Trefoils)
Ribera del Rapel in the Colchagua Valley, Chile
$17 (750ml)
Winemaking: The selected bunches were lightly crushed and pressed. The must decanted in stainless steel tanks and was then racked to French oak barrels (10% new, 90% 4th use) for fermentation followed by another 9 months of aging in the same barrels.
Tasting Notes: The 2016 Chardonnay maintains the characteristics of its origin, with notes of minerals, toasted hazelnuts, and tropical fruit. The palate is well balanced and complex, yet fresh and pleasingly creamy.
Food Pairing: Full-bodied fish such as Chilean sea bass, tuna, salmon, or corvine prepared on the grill and accompanied by cream-based sauces; pastas stuffed with crustaceans such as crap, jumbo and regular shrimp.
Our Cookie Pairing: I paired this wine with these cookies, as generally recommended by multiple sources on Pinterest to pair shortbread with Chardonnay. Girl Scout shortbread cookies aren’t nearly as buttery as the shortbread cookies we buy in Scotland, so these cookies paired delightfully well with this particular chardonnay, which wasn’t overly buttery (thanks to time spent in stainless steel tanks partly during the fermentation process). This pairing was beautiful!
Contadino Pinot Grigio delle Venezie 2016
paired with Lemonades
Veneto Region, Italy
$<10 (750ml) Trader Joe’s
Tasting Notes (from China George on Vivino): A pale straw color, with a medium floral-citrus nose; light and crisp, 12% ABV, green apple and pear flavors; with a nice tart, lemony finish. Refreshing!
Food Pairing: Shellfish, vegetarian, mushrooms, aperitif
Our Cookie Pairing: I paired this wine with these cookies, as generally recommended by multiple sources on Pinterest to pair lemon cookies with Pinot Grigio. We had a fun (read: cheap) Trader Joe’s find in the cellar that happy accidentally paired well with these cookies! The Lemonades, shortbread cookies with lemon icing, aren’t too buttery or too sweet, but a lovely mix of both (which makes them my favorite Girl Scout cookie flavor), and the Pinot Grigio was absolutely tart and citrusy enough to stand up to these cookies. Bliss!!!
paired with Shortbread (Trefoils)
D.O. Cava, Spain
$15 (750ml)
Winemaking: We plan the optimum moment for harvesting each variety. After de-stemming and pressing the grapes, we obtain the must. We add selected yeast and the must ferments at a temperature between 15º and 17ºC. Once the fermentation process is complete and the wines are stabilized, blending takes place and the resulting wine is bottled together with the liquer de tirage (a mixture of sugar and yeast). The bottles are stored in underground cellars (at a constant temperature of 17ºC), where a second fermentation occurs followed by a period of ageing in contact with yeast lees. In all, the wine spends at least 15 months on the lees, after which riddling takes place (rotating the bottles to facilitate settling and subsequent elimination of the lees) and disgorging, when the deposits from the second fermentation are extracted and the expedition liquer is added, a process that determines the cava’s residual sugars. Finally, the bottle is definitively corked.
Tasting Notes: Brilliant yellow color with green reflections. Fine, persistent bubbles forming continuous beads. On the nose, it displays citrusy and tropical fruit notes along with more complex ageing aromas (toast, brioche) that enrich the range of aromas. On the palate, it is creamy, wide and long-lasting. These characteristics make it highly versatile and pairable with a great variety of food.
Food Pairing: A very gourmet cava and a good ally for accompanying a menu from start to finish: starters, sauteed vegetables, fish, seafood, grilled meats, desserts and many other prepared dishes.
Our Cookie Pairing: Sadly, or maybe happily, we returned home from the convention with one more sleeve of Shortbread cookies, so I paired them with this wine, as generally recommended by multiple sources on Pinterest to pair shortbread cookies with Champagne. Well, we had Cava from one of the wineries we visited in Spain, so that was just as good! There’s something devilishly satisfying about eating cookies and sparkling wine at the end of a long weekend closing an either long week. It was wonderful, and I have no regrets!
So what team are you on: Milk-and-Cookies or Wine-and-Cookies? No pressure…
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