09 Dec Q&A with Somm Showdown Winners Alex Burch, LeeAnne Arnold
The stage lights shined bright on two exceptional sommeliers last month as Alex Burch and LeeAnne Arnold competed to be named the first-ever Somm Showdown champion in the final round of competition.
A blind tasting capped off a three-round journey for the six sommeliers that tried their hand in the showdown. In round one, sommeliers worked with a Nashville chef to pair the wine of their choice with a small dish; in round two, four sommeliers moved on to compete in a Jeopardy-style quiz; and in the final round, two remaining sommeliers vied for first place in a blind tasting of one white and one red wine.
Alex Burch, owner of the restaurant Bad Idea and CMS Advanced Sommelier, edged out his competition LeeAnne Arnold, CMS Certified Sommelier and General Manager of Harvest Wine Market, to take home the first-place prize of $2,000. LeeAnne took home $1,000 as the runner-up.
Nashville Wine Auction recently spoke with Alex and LeeAnne about their participation in the first-ever Somm Showdown.
Alex Burch, First Place
In 2016, Alex joined award-winning restaurant Bastion as Wine Director, developing an outstanding wine list to accompany the concept’s innovative tasting menu. In 2019, he passed his Advanced Sommelier Exam from the Board of Master Sommeliers and expanded his role within Strategic Hospitality to oversee the wine program at Henrietta Red and offered virtual guided tastings and wine classes during the pandemic of 2020.
Bad Idea, which was recently named to the New York Times’s Top 50 Restaurants List, allows Alex to blend all of his passions into one concept. The restaurant offers opportunities to promote exploration through food, and of course, wine, encouraging guests to discover new grape varieties, flavors, and places as well as dive even deeper into areas in which they might be familiar.
What inspired you to submit an application to compete in the Somm Showdown?
I’m a big fan of Nashville’s professional wine community. It’s fun to shine a spotlight on those individuals since wine often seems to play second fiddle to our food and cocktail scene. It’s a great reason to all get together as well.
In the first round you worked with Chef Marino Bianchi and paired his dish, Scallop, with François Chidaine Montlouis-sur-Loire Les Tuffeaux 2019. While you shared this at the event, will you share again how/why you selected this wine for this dish?
I wanted to step away from Chardonnay which might be the most popular first instinct for a Scallop dish. While this Chenin Blanc shares the apple flavors of Chardonnay, I thought having a slight amount of residual sugar would be a nice way to broaden the texture and play with the spice of chorizo. Also, being an older vintage let it develop some nutty, autumnal flavors to pair with the rest of the dish.
How was it for you to perform in the setting of this competition? For example, you mentioned the day of the competition that the Blind Tasting was definitely a different experience in front of a live audience.
I’m not particularly fond of the stage, so it can bring up some nerves. My style of blind tasting is pretty dry as well. It’s nice to have the audience taste along, so they can see how difficult blind tasting actually is. Thankfully, I’ve blind tasted wines with many of the competitors before, which is quite a lesson in humility. If you want to get good at blind tasting, you have to be comfortable getting the wines wrong in front of your peers over and over again and learn from it.
The winning moment, how did that feel?
It felt great! I’ve enjoyed being a part of the wine community in Nashville for a decade now and seeing the professional community grow. It’s great taking home the win, but I really enjoyed seeing other members of the professional community showcased as well and trying their pairings.
Did you learn anything (in general or about yourself) that surprised you while participating in this competition?
I’m pretty quick to drag my feet on public appearances, but I’m glad I was a part of it. Otherwise, it made me want to sharpen up a bit more. I’ve been maintaining my studies from the CMS Advanced exam, but now that we’re starting to get in the groove at Bad Idea, I’d like to dive more heavily into the world of wine study again.
What advice would you give future contestants?
Start prepping now! Taste and study and taste some more. Ha-Ha… I might have pre-advice that is just sign up and relax. It was a very supportive crowd and it’s fun to connect with other wine professionals and chefs in town and build new connections.
What did it mean to you and your team when your restaurant, Bad Idea, was recently named to the New York Times Best Restaurants in America list?
It made a huge impact. Opening a new restaurant post-pandemic in Nashville’s crowded restaurant scene is nerve-racking, to say the least, so it’s wonderful to be recognized at that level and see all of the new faces it’s brought through our doors.
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LeeAnne Arnold, First Runner Up
LeeAnne has worn many hats in the restaurant industry, including biscuit maker, General Manager, and Assistant Wine Director for some outstanding chefs. In December of 2023, she left restaurants to pursue a better work-life balance working in fine wine retail.
LeeAnne brings her years of fine wine experience in restaurants together with her love of teaching to lead education programming and outreach – for staff and customers at Harvest Wine Market. Currently a Certified Sommelier through the Court of Master Sommeliers, she is working to pass the Advanced Sommelier Exam.
What inspired you to submit an application to compete in the Somm Showdown?
I thought it would be a fun way to test my knowledge with my peers. I spoke with so many of my friends in the industry who were throwing their names in the hat it seemed silly not to try.
In the first round you worked with Chef Alyssa Gangeri and paired her dish, Korean Beef Hand Pie, Caramelized Kimchi Jam, Pickled Micro Vegetables with Olivier Depardon Domaine de la Bêche Morgon Côte du Py 2018. While we realize you shared this at the event, will you share again how/why you selected this wine for this dish?
There was a lot of back and forth deciding which wine I thought would work with a Korean Hand Pie. I knew since the filling had a sweetness, I wanted something to counterbalance. The wine needed to be meaty, savory, and earthy. Initially, my plan was to pour Syrah from West Sonoma Coast, but it couldn’t make it to Nashville in time. The Depardon Cote du Py has been a favorite food wine for years, and it is so unlike most gamay out there, it felt outside the box, like the dish.
Did you learn anything (in general or about yourself) that surprised you while participating in this competition?
I know that I am a wildly competitive person, so I definitely found myself working the strategy of the game during the trivia portion of the competition. I certainly learned that I need to be studying much, much harder for the Advanced Sommelier Exam in February. Those questions were no joke.
Any key takeaways or advice you would give future contestants?
I would definitely make sure you’re blind tasting and talking through the wines using either the CMS grid or WSET. I haven’t been making it to tastings this year, and I could definitely feel the rust.
The biggest takeaway that I would give to those competing in the future is to make sure you taste your dish! Get a sense of what the chef is doing so that you can make an informed decision about the wine you pair. Also, have a couple of bottles in mind and around when you do get to taste the dish so you can really dive deep into what works and what doesn’t.
