It’s all Greek to him: Turner wins Iron Sommelier
It’s a given we’ll see Evan Turner compete in future Iron Sommelier championships. It’s also a given that his variations on a theme will forever be Greek wine. But the specialness of Turner’s second victory, claimed Thursday evening in a competition at which he was originally planning only to lend a helping hand, will be impossible to top.
“It was a big win on behalf of all furloughed restaurant workers,” said Turner, who also claimed the 2015 Iron Somm crown representing Houston’s Helen Greek Food & Wine. “It was also a big for Greek wines. I was just the messenger, really. Greek wine won last night.”
And, of course, so did families who are dealing with cancer and other serious illnesses. The event brought an estimated $237,000 for the beneficiary, the Periwinkle Foundation.
In normal times, Turner would be in Boston, working the floor at Krasi Meze & Wine, the city’s sleekest, most sophisticated Greek restaurant. But the economic realities of COVID-19 hit hard back in March, and Turner, after spending barely a month on his new job, was left with no choice but to return to Houston. The good news was his wife, Elissa, and their three children, ages 4 to 17, were delighted to have him home. He’ll likely be here through early spring at least with the virus, after a late-summer lull, again causing havoc in the Northeast.
Turner had been planning all along to fly in to assist event chairman Sean Beck with the 2020 competition. With nothing but time on his hands, he asked if he could compete instead, and the Periwinkle Foundation was delighted to have him return to the mix.
As it turned out, Turner didn’t just triumph. He dominated, becoming the first to claim
the Triple Crown: Iron Sommelier, the People’s Choice Award and Best Presentation. The former was decided by a trio of judges (Master Sommeliers Craig Collins of Austin and Goodnight Hospitality’s June Rodil, plus the HoustonWine Merchant’s Antonio Gianola) while the socially distanced guests attending either of the dinners at Backstreet Cafe and Hugo’s in person and another 100 linked in via Zoom determined the other categories.
Orchestrating the three-hour program seeded a logistics nightmare before the fact with so many moving parts — in the past, everything took place under one roof at the Houstonian Hotel & Spa — but things went splendidly by all accounts. Turner gave deserved kudos to Beck, the Iron Somm’s original, and only, threetime champion who oversees the wine buying for owners Tracy Vaught and Hugo Ortega at the
two host restaurants as well as Caracol and Xochi.
“How Sean had to call an audible (because of the pandemic) and to pull it off, that was just amazing,” Turner said. “This was entirely his doing, making it work and making it special. I’m in awe of Sean. The guys who executed D-Day, they would have been impressed.”
The 50-year-old Turner’s appreciation for Greek grapes began when he spent his teenage years in Macedonia, where his father taught as a visiting professor. But the wine culture there has evolved spectacularly in recent years, giving Turner plenty of options for creating a fresh presentation. He entitled his latest one “Meet and Greek: Rare Grapes of Greece,” featuring the 2018 Domaine de Kalathas Koumariano “To Kokkino” Epitrapezios, Oenos and the 2013 Domaine Nerantzi Koniaros PGI Serres. The former is made from
mavro potamisi, the latter from konarios.
Both wineries have tiny productions — at Domaine Nerantzi, the wife of the winery’s owner hand-draws designs on each bottle’s label — but, with assistance from an importer he knows in New York, Dionysios Grevenitis, he scored a case of each for Houston.
“Eighty (percent) to 90 percent of the Greek wineries have been founded in the last 20 years,” Turner said. “There’s lots of great stuff happening there right now. It’s like being in Napa in the 1970s. The two wines were drinking so well, too, so I felt great about my chances.”
The 12 competing sommeliers split into two groups. One started at Backstreet, then shuttled over to Hugo’s, and vice versa. Beck, Rodil and two other Houstonbased Master Sommeliers, Jack Mason and Steven McDonald, helped fill in the down time by serving wines special to them. Also at Hugo’s, Andres Blanco poured his favorite wines from Mexico, essentially reprising the presentation that earned him 2018 Iron Somm honors. Then representing Caracol, he’s now in charge of the La Table wine program.
Justin Vann of Public Services Bar and Theodore Rex was chosen first runner-up with his theme, “Natural Enemies: Varietal Correctness vs. Natural Wine,” and second runner-up would be 2018 champion Julie Dalton of Mastro’s. Hers was called “I See the Sea” and featured wines from two lovely vineyard-filled places on the Mediterranean shore, Cinque Terre in Italy and Cassis in France.
“Iron Somm is such a fun time,” Turner said. “I love it. I wish we could do it every day.”