Refreshing with brisk acid, with leather, cherry, watermelon, licorice and a nice long finish. Very good.

Discussion at the table surrounding the petrol note on the nose. Adds a distinctive quality. Green melon, what I thought was a hint of strawberry and a soft palate.

I starred this wine in my notes. Lime, tangerine, anise, really good, with a core of acid in the finish. Another one to order. Excellent viognier.

Tasted next to the 2009 Larner Grenache, and I prefer the Watch Hill. The aromatics on the WH are terrific, beautiful and spicy. The palate shows a juicy, dark cherry, with elevated acid and middle weight texture. Juicy and edgy. I own very little grenache in the cellar but I will put this into my cellar. Really enjoyed this wine and my WOTN (tied with the 2008 Rodney's Petite Sirah).....24 hrs later, retasting the last couple ounces and still drinks terrific. Love the lighter red color, the cherry hard candy, prickly acid and red licorice and pine needle in the finish. Just terrific.

Tasted next to the 2009 Watch Hill grenache and I preferred that wine over this Larner. The Larner is riper in tone, darker, bigger overall. The depth here and texture is deeper, showing more blacker tones fruit that the dominant red of the WH. I believe several at the table liked the Larner so I think it depends on what you want in grenache. For me, I want the aromatics and subtler red fruits, which is the WH and the Larner to me is more forward.

Approaching 7 years of age, this wine still showed lively to me, with a good density and bright hard candy red fruit.

I believe this is the wine that Parker poo-poo'd some time ago. There is nothing wrong with this wine. Seemed a bit dense to me and not as distinctive as the 2006 we tasted next to it.

This is 50% Larner and 50% Camp 4. I found this superior to the 2006 and 2007 we tasted alongside it. The 2010 shows a nice tang/spicy quality. Cherry and leather and a soily/loamy noe in the finish. I enjoyed this.

This wine seemed to a bit bigger for my tastes in syrah. Has 5% co-fermented vioginer in it, showing a little heat and large aromatic. Blackberry, smoke and maple.

I enjoyed this wine again, as I did recently when I tasted it over a couple of evenings. Black olive, leather and a hint of barnyard on the aromatic. Dark in the glass, iron/metal shaving, chocolate and dark fruit. Enjoyed this one, and to me superior to the 09 Larner.

This is excellent petite sirah, showing more complex notes that typical petite and as a said to Larry, more Ridge-like. No prune or raisin here, instead an olive-briney nose. Juicy and middle weight, again briney with good tannin and youthful. Juicy. I'd buy several of these for the cellar but Mr Schaffer says it's sold out. Not surprising. Excellent.

Saved about 4 ounces of this from last night's Tercero dinner we had at the house. This worked out well, as I have nothing in my notes on this wine from last night. Aromatically, this is sans any heat or prune, which is similar to the 2008 from last night that I thought was excellent. Bottle label says this is 14.7% and that seems right, given how it tastes. There is a decent amount of stucture in this wine, even with 24 hours of slow ox'ing in the bottle. Stalky nose, with some underbrush, pepper, smoke. While the 2008 (fruit source on that was Rodney's, while this is Camp 4) drinks as juicy and middle weight, this ain't far off from that wine. There is some dark fruit here, but as you might expect, given the lower alcohol, there is some red fruit in the palate profile, little juicy even. Charry red and black fruit in the finish. This may turn out to be as good as the 2008, although it's a bit disjointed now. I'd expect this to sort out and come together as a really nice petite in another 2-3 years, as there is good raw material here.