My day as a judge in the New York State Fair

I was surrounded by the gifted and talented on Sept. 2.

That's the day I helped judge the New York state amateur wine competition at the New York State Fair in Syracuse.

More than 380 wines were entered in the American Wine Society Home Winemakers' Competition. After a first judging, 255 of them made it to the final tasting on Sept. 2 -- and I was there.

I was honored to be asked to be a judge by John Stavinsky, one of the competition organizers. John found out about me via the Internet, when he came across one of my weekly Finger Lakes wine columns.

Provided The Wine Guy columnist Jeff Richards judged wines during the American Wine Society Home Winemakers' Competition, held Sept. 2 at the New York State Fair in Syracuse.

Since I am fairly new at wine judging, John assured me that I would be paired with more experienced individuals.

In the morning, I met the two judges on my panel -- Tom Cottrell, and Harvey Reissig, who served as panel captain. Tom is a wine consultant who helps get new wineries off the ground. In this region, he has worked with Marti and Tom Macinski of Standing Stone Vineyards in Hector.

On the west coast, Tom said he had worked with Cuvaison in California's Napa Valley when it first started.

Harvey (actually W. Harvey) is a professor of entomology at the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva. Entomologists work on ways to safely protect crops from pests.

The four panels of judges were given different flights of wine to taste and judge throughout the day. The extent of the flights for our group ranged from four wines up to 12. In some flights, not all of the wines were made from the same grape type.

As each new flight was introduced to a table, each judge independently smelled and tasted each wine, made notes and then rated the wines in that flight from first to last.

Our scores were forwarded to Harvey, who totaled them up. Then there was a lively discussion about any wine that did not get a ranking that a judge thought it deserved. In the end, the judges had to agree which wines, if any, deserved a gold, silver or bronze medal.

Some of the debate centered on what constitutes a flaw in a wine. For example, I gave lower ratings to some cabernet franc wines that had a vegetal taste to them, but Harvey and Tom thought that was acceptable.

For several flights, our rankings for the top and bottom wines matched. We also agreed that there were some exceptional wines in this competition.

"I find that many of these wines are comparable (in quality) to commercial wines," Harvey said.

While we were concentrating on our judging, a room that was almost empty at the beginning of the day gradually began to fill up. Contestants, their families and friends came to watch, knowing that the results would soon be at hand.

The last flight was a special treat that capped off the afternoon's tasting with five dessert wines. They were a Concord port, a peach and three raspberry wines. In this flight, we awarded a gold to the port, and silvers to two of the raspberry dessert wines.

When it was time to present the awards, the room was packed with enthusiastic winemakers, friends and relatives. As each medal was awarded, the camaraderie was evident as those in the crowd hollered and cheered.

The winners were a mix of first-time entrants and long-time winemakers, and from their reactions, it was clear that the contestants would treasure the medals earned at the New York State Fair.

Jeff Richards' wine column appears each Thursday on the Twin Tiers Life Food Page. For comments or questions, he can be reached at 607/271-8279 or 800/836-8970, ext. 279, or e-mail: jrichards@stargazette.com