Dallas resident Dilek Caner, sommelier, wine educator, earns certification as Master of Wine

Know who’s the biggest wine geek in Dallas? It’s not James Tidwell, or Melissa Monosoff or even Barb Werley. Those three are all certified master sommeliers. What’s more geeky? Certification as a master of wine. The way I’ve hear master somms put it, a master somm knows a little about a whole lot of wine things; a master of wine knows a whole lot about a few things.

Who knows a whole lot about, say, Washington State syrah? Dallas resident and wine educator Dilek Caner, who just earned the prestigious master of wine certification, the Institute of Masters of Wine announced yesterday. Caner joins a group of 312 other wine scholars successfully passed all three parts of the Master of Wine examination, including a Ph.D.-caliber dissertation. The title of Caner’s disertation: Washington State Syrah: US consumer and trade perspectives. The thesis must have come easily to her; she also holds a Ph.D. in economics from New York University.

Oh, there’s more. Much more. She also knows more than you do about everything in wine and spirits because she’s also certified by the Guild of Master Sommeliers as an advanced sommelier and is testing for her master sommelier certification. She previously worked a sommelier at Restaurant Alain Ducasse and as a writer at Wine & Spirits Magazine. And since she was born in Istanbul, Caner is the first Turkish master of wine.

Caner lives in Dallas and works as is a wine educator with WSET (the Wine & Spirit Education Trust).