Tastecamp Brief Report: Day 1

I’ve got tons to say about the experience from Day 1 of Tastecamp North but it will take me hours to summarize it all, so this is the short version:

Passionate wine industry people led us through a great wine and food experience. There were likely 80-100 wines available to be tasted throughout the day. Given the variety of wines and vintages poured there was something that everyone would have liked. I’ve got detailed notes on many new favourites found today that I would like to go back to in a more relaxed (read slow) tasting event.

The day opened with a fantastic session at Chateau Des Charmes, a great light lunch and a grand tasting outside the chateau. Then it was off to Hillebrand for a tour of the sparkling wine cellars (~500,000 hand-stacked bottles)

and another tasting event with additional wineries represented.

After a brief respite at the hotel, we then had a Vincor wine and cheese event before boarding the double decker bus for the last stop of the day – a late night, wood-oven roasted suckling pig dinner at Ravine Vineyards where husband and wife team of Peter Gamble (Ravine) and Anne Sperling (Southbrook) took us through the similarities and differences in their wines.

Day 2 starts with boarding the bus at 8am – I had better go get ready!