By Lenn Thompson, Executive Editor

With TasteCamp North 2011 attendees, including most of the NYCR team,  back home and pondering the stories that we'd all like to write — and they are numerous — I wanted to share some of the pictures I took over the course of the weekend.

We tasted some outstanding local wines, enjoyed meals prepared by farm-to-table chefs and met some incredibly passionate and talented people in the wine industries on both sides of the border. Over the next few weeks, you can expect some great stories from the event right here on the site.

In the meantime, here's a bit of a photo diary of TasteCamp 2011.

CdC
Vineyard at Chateau des Charmes — in the St. David's Bench appellation.

 

Tawse-group
The group listening to Paul Pender, winemaker at Tawse Winery. Tawse is one of the region's organic and biodynamic producers.

 

Clover1
The vineyard at Tawse Winery has the most densely grown clover cover crop I've ever seen under the vines — by design.

 

Ravine-glass
Dinner the first night was at Ravine Vineyard — and included some delicious wood oven-roasted suckling pig (and crispy pig skin that I've been dreaming about ever since.)

 

89
Vineland Estates winemaker Brian Schmidt likes to hold back his riesling to show how it ages. And, he was generous enough to open up a bottle of 1989 Semi-Dry for us — and it was deliciously alive.

 

Vineland
It was great to hear some history of the St. Urban vineyard at Vineland Estates.

 

Dinner
The now-famous BYO dinner at TasteCamp was held at Treadwells — a terrific farm-to-table restaurant. Rumor has it that more than 70 bottles of wine were opened from all corners of the globe.

 

Arrowhead
On our final day of TasteCamp, we crossed back into the United States. This is a picture of Arrowhead Spring Vineyards.

Oakes
A handful of Niagara USA wineries poured for the group before brunch at Carmelo's in Lewiston, NY. Here, the well-hatted Jonathan Oakes from Leonard Oakes Estate Winery speaks with our Finger Lakes editor, Evan Dawson.