In the past, Greek wines have been known to lack both enticing flavor and easy-to-pronounce names. But Sommelier Evan Turner thought they’d come far enough to build a dinner around.

This past October 17, the restaurant at the alden-houston hotel in downtown Houston, held its first Greek wine tasting dinner. The dinner was mainly the inspiration of Turner, who spent seven years living in Greece and who previously worked in a Greek restaurant in New York City.

“Greek wine is a pet project of mine,” Turner says. “I’ve always loved Greek food and have followed with interest the renaissance of Greek wine.” So Turner went to Executive Chef Wes Morton and suggested they do a Greek food and wine dinner to dovetail with the city’s annual Greek Festival.

To Turner’s knowledge, no one in Houston has ever attempted to build a dinner around Greek wines. “It’s easy to build a dinner around the wines of Burgundy or Napa Valley,” says Turner, “but it’s much more challenging to do so around the wines of Greece.”

Retsina usually comes to mind when thinking of Greek wine, “which most people would rather use for antifreeze or paint thinner,” quips Turner. “But there has been a renaissance in Greek wine, and there are a lot of talented wine makers in Greece.”

Turner admits Greek wines haven’t gained much traction in the U.S., often because Greeks stay with their own traditional varietals with hard-to-pronounce names, which are difficult for Americans to pinpoint stylistically. “That’s until, of course, they get a chance to taste them, and then it’s a revelation.”

The most popular and accessible Greek wines, claims Turner, are the whites from the island of Santorini made from the Assyrtiko grape. “They’re wonderful, crisp, dry, lively white wines people find appealing.” Turner also lauds the country’s impressive reds.

To create the dinner menu, Chef Morton scoured countless cookbooks and spoke to Turner and Greek friends about their recollections of Greece, with an eye toward how the grandmothers cook there. He also checked out the menu at Anthos, a Michelin-star rated Greek restaurant in New York City, for inspiration.

The dinner attracted about two dozen diners who paid $150 per person, all inclusive. A section of the dining room was cordoned off, giving it the feel of an intimate dinner in the home of “someone with a lot of money and a lot of food knowledge,” Turner says.

PAIRINGS
As each course came out, either Turner or Chef Morton talked about the food and the wine: how it was made, its history, and why the wine was a good match. The seven-course meal paired with nine different wines started with spanikopita, followed by a soup made from lamb tripe and meatballs, clarified lamb stock, and avgolemono sauce topped with fresh dill.

Turner says no ouzo was poured, no one shouted “opa,” and there was no breaking of plates. “This was a more sophisticated take on modern Greek food,” he says. “We wanted to serve dishes off the beaten path instead of what people stereotypically imagine when they think of Greek food. We stayed away from things like souvlaki or gyro … There’s a lot of really dynamic Greek cooking.”

PREPARATION
Chef Morton played around with each dish and tested it on the kitchen staff when refining the menu. He is particularly proud of the soup but says the lamb also turned out well.

He took a whole lamb and dry roasted the legs and neck for 35 hours at 200°F. The meat was picked off the bone, cut in rough chunks, combined with reduced lamb stock, then pressed into a pan and formed into blocks wrapped in caul fat. The blocks were seared and served with a chickpea and Greek olive oil purée accompanied by braised artichokes.

Turner says this recipe is a “much more sophisticated take” on an old northern Greek dish called lamb kleftiko, which means “thief” or “bandit.” During the Ottoman Empire, Greek guerilla fighters would steal a lamb or goat, dig holes in the ground, line the holes with coals, and cook their meats covered so there was no smoke revealing their whereabouts, hence the name.

The meal ended with semolina cake served with dried figs rehydrated in red wine, Greek yogurt sorbet, and a sweet wine from Samos.

For Turner, the dinner was the ultimate homage. “No doubt that the beginning of my love of food and wine was because of seven years spent in Greece,” he explains. “I have a great deal of respect and love for Greek culture and always thought it got the short end of the stick when it comes to the pantheon of the food world.

“Not to say they’re going to knock the French and Italians off their pedestals anytime soon, but they deserve more due than they get.”

John Paul Boukis is a frequent contributor to HOTEL F&B.