Finger Lakes International Wine Competition Chpt. 3

The FLIWC finished up yesterday. Jim and I had a great time pouring and serving our table of judges. We came home with some great wines and VERY sore legs. This was the tenth year of the competition, so things were extremely well organized and orchestrated. Here is a sampling of what we had to do at our pouring station... First the "corkers" uncorked and brought us the wines in our flight. We had usually 5 judges (the 5th being a "visiting" judge) with flights of 7-8 wines per flight. Therefore we had 40 Riedel wine glasses to stage. First we had to dry and inspect them for water spots or chips. Next, because this is a blind tasting and the judges only know the type of wine not the winery, we had to place a sticker on each wine glass denoting the number of the wine. We then poured the wines into their designated glasses, checked and double checked our accuracy and waited to be called. When the boss man (Tom King) said "lets roll", all the wine stations (there were 15 of us) VERY CAREFULLY rolled our wine carts with our 40 filled glasses out of our room, down a hallway to the judging room. In the judge's room we collected the old scoring sheets and cleaned the previous flight's glasses from the tables, then arranged the next flight before each judge in left to right sequence matching their scoring sheets. But our work was not done. Now we had to take the used glasses to the glass washers, a wonderful group of very dedicated volunteers who washed thousands of very expensive Riedel glasses all day long. We took our cart back to our station and started over again. There was a total of 27 flights of wine over the 2 days!

We were just a tiny part of this wonderful day. The judges volunteer their time and come from Canada, Europe and across the United States because they believe in Camp Good Days and Special Times. We spoke with several who judge year after year and consider it the highlight of their year. Then there are the hours and hours that go into gathering the 3010 wines, numbering them, separating them for the competition and the dinner (May 1st), hauling them into the Rochester Plaza, coordinating the volunteers, the food, the judge's dinner, the rooms for staging, judging and processing the scores, the set-up and dismantling...the list goes on and on and is mind boggling. This is truly a labor of love for the coordinators and planners: Peter Parts, Scott Osborne, Ed Schramm, Tom King and others such as Joelle Cain. I know I have left out tons of important people involved and I apologize for not knowing who you all are. Suffice it to say, I felt a part of something so inspirational that I know I want to return and keep paying forward all the good that this competition and dinner represent for the children who attend Camp Good Days and Special Times.

The afternoon highlight was when Gary Mervis, the camp's founder spoke softly and eloquently to the judges and volunteers about his daughter, Teddi. Teddi was his reason for founding the camp as a place where children dealing with cancer can go - free of charge- and have fun. Having those "good days" at camp and keeping the memories of those "special times" at camp to help them through other, not so pleasant days, is what the camp is all about. Gary went on to explain his vision of cancer research and hopes for the future. I was humbled to be a part of something so important.

So here is a photo of our awesome "K" team - Tony, Denise, Jim and I, as well as some of the staging and work areas at the competition.

Thank-you Peter Bell for your recommendation and Peter Parts for allowing us to be a part of this important occasion.