We Paired Girl Scout Cookies and Wine and the Results Are Amazing

It’s that time of year again. Girl Scouts everywhere are beginning to sell their famous cookies. And while you certainly should support their entrepreneurial ventures, you should also be thinking about how you can take the cookies to the next level. Because nothing makes an already fabulous cookie taste better than an even more fabulous glass of wine. With 12 different flavor profiles to choose from this year, we’re offering up 12 different pairing suggestions.

Next to the holiday season, Girl Scout Cookie season is my favorite time of year. And, thankfully, there are 12 different flavor profiles available now.

So what does a wine lover do with all those cookies staring at her? She invites her girlfriend over, who happens to be an uber wine expert, so they can get to pairing.

Now I am pretty indiscriminating. Good wine and good cookies go together no matter what. But Jessica Norris, wine director at New York City's Del Frisco's Double Eagle Steakhouse and one of Wine Enthusiast's Top 40 under 40 Tastemakers, insisted we take it up a notch.

So with cookies and wine in hand, we are pleased to present the ultimate Girl Scout Cookie and Wine Pairings Guide:

Thin Mints® are my all-time favorite Girl Scout cookie. These round, mint-flavored cookies with a chocolate coating scream for a good Brunello and since the 2010's are awesome and just hitting the shelves, we figured why not?

Brunello recommendations:

Caramel deLites® and Samoas® are the iconic caramel and toasted coconut-covered cookies that will taste even better (if you can imagine that) with an aged Rioja. Norris tells us she keeps a stash of these cookies in her freezer – for emergencies, of course.

Rioja recommendations:

Peanut Butter Patties® and Tagalongs® are coated in chocolate and peanut butter and have a big taste, which means they need a big wine. Go get an Amarone.

Amarone recommendations:

Trefoils® are shortbread cookies that will go great with an off-dry German Riesling. Clean and simple.

German Riesling recommendations:

Do-Si-Dos® are oatmeal peanut butter sandwiches that pair exceptionally well with a big California Zinfandel. The combo will taste like your favorite peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

California Zinfandel recommendations:

Cranberry Citrus Crisps have a zesty citrus flavor that made us reach straight for a complementary New Zealand Pinot Noir.

New Zealand Pinot Noir recommendations:

Lemonades™ are lemon-icing-topped shortbread cookies. Norris got adventurous here suggesting an Italian Roero Arneis. Arneis is a white wine grape that originated in Piedmont, Italy and is most commonly found in the hills of the Roero, which is northwest of Alba. Yum.

Roero Arneis recommendations:

Rah-Rah Raisins™ are oatmeal cookies with raisins and Greek yogurt-flavored chunks that need a heavily merlot based wine like a left bank Bordeaux.

Left Bank Bordeaux recommendations:

Savannah Smiles™ are lemon-flavored cookies dusted with powdered sugar. Pair them with a Sancerre and you will have a match made in heaven.

Sancerre recommendations:

Thanks-A-Lot™ cookies are made of shortbread with fudge on the bottom. “Try a Bandol Rouge," says Norris. Bandol is an appellation in Provence, in south-eastern France. Bandol's red wines are at least 50% Mourvedre, which is a spicy grape, so it'll work great with the chocolate.

Bandol recommendations:

Toffee-tastic™ cookies are buttery with toffee bits. While the toffee alone screams for a tawny port, accompanied with the cookie, a Chateauneuf-du-Pape, a red blend from southern Rhone valley, would be a better choice.

Chateauneuf-du-Pape recommendations:

Trios are peanut butter oatmeal cookie chocolate chip cookies, which also happen to be gluten free. Pick a Washington State Syrah because the dark berry in the Syrah will work great with the peanut butter and chocolate chips.

Washington State Syrah recommendations:


So that's our list. No doubt yours will be different. But let us know — then we can eat more cookies and taste more wines.