Spicy Salami Spinach Dip & Orange Wine

A very important question for you, a classic dip re-imagined, and the perfect Halloween wine.

There’s nothing quite like a classic creamed spinach dip with soft bread. I for one am always crowded around the spinach dip at parties, and I’m usually not the only one!

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I wanted to create something unique while still honouring the delicious flavour and texture of classic spinach dip, and when I saw some spicy salami in the fridge that I had to use up, I knew what needed to be done: Spicy Salami Spinach Dip. A combination of two crowd-pleasers: charcuterie and spinach dip. SO GOOD. The addition of spicy calabrian peppers and spicy salami adds the perfect little kick and texture variation that brings this already addictive dip to a whole new level!

Wine Pairing

I recommend pairing this beauty of a dip with orange wine. And no, it’s not made from oranges. It’s made from white grapes!

So, why is it orange?

When making orange wine, white grapes are fermented with their skins, similarly to how red wine is made, which is the reason for it’s vibrant amber/orange colour and rich, tannic structure. The more skin contact during fermentation, the richer the colour and the more tannic the wine will be. Think of it like Rosé and red wine. Both are made in the same way, but when the wine is pink (rosé) it means that there was less skin contact (typically anywhere from 12-24 hours), whereas with red wine, we might see weeks or months of skin contact! The longer the skin contact, the bigger and bolder the red wine.

The flavour profile of orange wine is just so cool. It can vary wine to wine, but some common ones are orangey flavours like orange peel and orange marmalade, stone fruit like apricot and nectarine, warm spices like ginger and turmeric, fresh or dried herbs, and honey!

SO why does this pairing work?

Orange wine is super versatile as a food wine. It usually has nice crisp acidity (which is always a bonus when it comes to pairing wine with food) plus it has some weight and complexity to it that helps it pair with foods rich in both flavour and structure. This dip is creaaaamy, so it really benefits from an acidic wine to cleanse the palate, but it also needs something that can stand up to the bitter greens and spicy salami. The bright, zesty, herbal, spicy flavours of orange wine are just perfect for this!

My Recommendation

There are TONS of orange wines out there. Many are great, and many… not so great. A lot of them are considered natural or low intervention, meaning they manipulate the wine as little as possible from the vineyard to the winery. I truly love natural wine and have has some exceptional ones, but because of the lack of intervention (e.g., limiting the use of pesticides and sulfites), the final product is not always consistent, and it’s not uncommon to have a wine that just tastes off.

An orange wine that I can confidently recommend is Orange Gold by Gérard Bertrand. A wine from the South of France that is a blend of 5 white grape varieties (Chardonnay, Grenache Blanc, Viognier, Marsanne, Mauzac, Muscat, Clairette). I love that it has that gorgeous flavour profile of orange wine, but it’s not a natural wine, and because of that the final product is consistent. You always know what you’re going to get, and I’ve consistently enjoyed it since I first discovered in a couple years ago!

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Spicy Salami Spinach Dip