If you are visiting us for the first time, Welcome! The Wine Spies feature one exceptional wine each day – and we only bring you wines that we ourselves seek out and love. Always, the wines are great. Sometimes even better than that, as is the case with today’s wine from .

EXCLUSIVE WINE ALERT: Once again, The Wine Spies scoop another World Exclusive, bringing you today’s wine before it is available ANYwhere else

SUPERIOR WINE ALERT: Today’s wine is the best Monterey County Pinot Noir we have tasted this year

TOP SECRET SPECIAL: Free Shipping on orders of six or more bottles. Use the promotion code PINOTSPY during checkout.

Mission Codename: Santa Lucia Elegance

Operative: Agent Red

Objective: Investigate rumors that Richard Oh, winemaker and owner of Otter Cove Wines, has secretly crafted a small production and superior Pinot Noir under a different name. If the rumors are true and if the wine is incredible, secure an ample supply for our Operatives to enjoy

Mission Status: Accomplished

Current Winery: Oh Wines

Wine Subject: 2006 Pinot Noir

Winemakers: Richard Oh

Backgrounder: The Wine Spies have featured wines made by Richard Oh, under his brand, Otter Cove. Those wines drink beautifully and many of our Operatives imbibe Otter Cove wines regularly. When we learned that Richard was developing a higher-end Pinot Noir, Agent Red rushed to investigate. He returns, victorious, having procured an advance-allocation before the wine is available to the general public. Read Agent Red’s tasting notes and mission report below. Please note that we only have a limited supply of this wine.

Wine Spies Tasting Profile:

Look – Beautiful rose with great clarity, maintaining its color right out to its sparkling pink edges. After swirling, the wine exhibits a velvety surface and skinny legs

Smell – A beautiful rush of fruit with big cherry, ripe raspberry, soft gunpowder and a hint of mildest spice

Feel – Velvet-smooth and very round, the wine is silky and elegant across the entire palate with soft tannins that give the wine a luxurious feel

Taste – Classic Santa Lucia Highlands – but with something extra, this wine displays fantastic fruit with cherry and raspberry, followed by soft oak and a mild earthiness

Finish – Silky and elegant again, with big fruit and soft tannins

Conclusion – We are big fans of Richard Oh’s Otter Cover wines, but where his other wines could be classified as ‘budget-minded daily drinkers’, this wine is an elegant luxury wine. With fruit sourced from two of Santa Lucia’s most prized vineyards, Richard has managed to craft a wine that is tastier and more refined than others we have tasted that were made from the same fruit. If you have never tasted a Santa Lucia Highlands Pinot Noir, spoil yourself with this great example!

Mission Report:

Once The Wine Spies have conducted a covert mission to a winery, procuring follow-on wines is just a matter of the winery using the Spy Phone we install for them at their location. Recently we got the call from Richard Oh, letting us know that his new wine label was about to be unveiled and would we like to feature the wine. We knew about the new wine months earlier, when it was still in barrels, but we appreciate the offer, Richard. Thanks for letting our Operatives have first shot at your wonderful new Pinot Noir!

What follows is a prior mission recap, in which we meet Richard Oh for the first time

On my recommendation Wine Spies HQ issued me a mission directive to place Richard Oh, winemaker and owner of Otter Cove Wines, under direct surveillance. I had done enough deep background work to know that this mission would be a fairly easy one to accomplish.

Richard Oh’s Otter Cove Wines can be found at several great Monterey area restaurants and I learned that Richard himself could often be found frequenting one particular restaurant, The Siamese Bay Thai restaurant in Downtown Monterey.

I had my advance team stake the place out and I found that Richard took lunch there most Thursday’s and usually at the peak times, when there was usually a wait for a seat. I used this knowledge to my advantage and, on a Thursday, waited in my car, across the street, waiting for Richard to arrive. After he went inside, I followed a few minutes later.

The restaurant was packed. Noticing that he was seated alone at a table for two I gingerly asked him if I he would mind sharing his table with me. He politely obliged and when the waiter took my order, I added, “And please bring me a glass of the Otter Cove Pinot Noir”. Richard did his best to hide his amusement and I tried my best to ignore that.

The wine arrived and I sniffed deeply. Despite the big aromas of Thai spices in the air, the wine came through and it smelled great. I swirled, looked and sniffed some more. Richard, doing a great job of acting nonchalant, seemed to be growing anxious for me to take my first sip. I took my time, sniffing, swirling some more.

“Aren’t you going to try the wine?”, he Asked.

Looking somewhat absent-minded, I said, “Oh. Yes, in a moment. I am enjoying the aromatics of the wine.”

“Wine drinker, are you?”

“Sort of,” I lied.

When I finally took a sip, there was no lying in my reaction. I loved the wine and I made the fact plainly obvious.

“What do you think?”, he asked me.

“You make great wine, Richard.”

“Why, thank you… Agent…. ‘Red’ I presume?”

It seems that my advance team had accidentally revealed themselves a few days earlier – and that Richard Oh, master winemaker, had anticipated my arrival.

If Richard were not so good at his own craft, I’d recruit him to work in ours. He’d have made a great Wine Spy!