Honey Butter Hot Corn Dip & Sparkling Riesling

hot corn dip slathered in butter and honey, topped with crispy prosciutto, and paired with a sparkling wine I will love forever.

You know that first bite of fresh summer corn, when it’s sweet, hot, and just dripping with salty butter? Now imagine that, but gooey, cheesy, topped with crispy prosciutto, and slathered in sweet honey. YUP.

The Dip

This dip is the embodiment of sunshine and summer hangs, and it’s pretty much impossible to stop eating. It’s hot, creamy, sweet, and salty, with a hint of spice that ties it all together. You’ll burn your tongue trying to eat it straight from the skillet and you’ll love every second of it.

Here’s why it’s so awesome:

• The creamy base is RICH, but beautifully balanced by the bright refreshing lemon. And by the wine, of course, but more on that below ;)

• The corn’s natural sweetness plays perfectly with the sweet honey, but it’s not tooo sweet. All that sweetness is tempered by the saltiness from the butter, flaky salt, and prosciutto

• Sweet and salty on it’s own is delicious, but bringing in a teeny kick of spice from the cayenne and black pepper amps up the complexity and brings it to a whole new level of awesome!

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The Pairing

This dip + Riesling = delish. This dip + sparkling Riesling? Straight up summer wine pairing magic. Here’s why:

• Riesling typically has gorgeous, bright flavours of crisp green apple, citrus, honey, and flowers. The citrus and honey flavours match the lemon and honey in the dip, which amps up both their flavour and the natural sweetness from the corn.

• Riesling has super high acidity, which is needed to cut through the richness and refresh the palate between each rich, cheesy, buttery bite. Throw in some bubbles, and that palate cleansing gets taken to a whole new level!

My Recommendation

I paired this dip with one of my long-time favourite Canadian sparkling wines - the Summerhill Pyramid Winery Cipes Brut. And it was awesome.

This biodynamic beauty is made with mostly Riesling (with a little Pinot Blanc and Chardonnay), grown in the cool-climate of the Okanagan Valley, and made in the traditional or “Champagne” method - aka second fermentation in the bottle for those smooth bubbles, aged on the lees (or dead yeast cells) for that toasty creamy complexity, alll the good stuff.

I’ve always described this one as bubbly key lime pie. It’s not sweet, but it has very distinct notes of lime curd with subtle hints of pie crust. And I love it.

CALGARY PEEPS: You can find this one in my Highlander Wine online storefront for the month of June!

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Can’t find this wine?

This one will be hard to find for my non-Canadian friends, so here are some alternatives that will pair beautifully with this dip!

• Sekt (the OG sparkling Riesling from either Germany or Austria), like these by Andreas Bender or Dr. Loosen.

• Dry Riesling, like these by Sybille Kuntz, Dr. Loosen, or Andreas Bender

• Off-dry Riesling, like these by Nik Weis or Dr. Loosen

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RECIPE: Honey Butter Hot Corn Dip

Ingredients

• 2 ears corn

• 4 tbsp butter