First, a tip of the Bella Online Wine Guy hat to a reader in CA who pointed out to me that Naked Chardonnay is also known as unoaked or unwooded Chardonnay. He also recommended that I try the 2006 Wakefield Promised Land 2006 Unoaked Chardonnay.

Now that I had an unwooded Chardonnay recommendation, I thought it might be a good time to spend a quiet evening at home and have a seafood dinner of mussels. We bought the frozen mussels the night before and thawed them in a container in the fridge overnight.

We started on Saturday night and were sitting around trying to figure out if we should grill the mussels or sauté them. We have had them grilled on the Bar-B-Q before and they were pretty good. But since it was clouding up outside and there was a rain smell in the air, we decided that we would sauté them. Using a medium frying pan, we put some garlic, chives and olive oil into the pan and brought it up to medium heat. We added in a little white wine, we had left over in the fridge, and added the mussels. We cooked the mussels for a few minutes, stirring constantly. You don't want to cook them too long or they will get rubbery and shrink up. You cook mussels just like you cook shrimp.

Concurrent with getting the mussels ready, we were cooking pasta fini. The plan was to put the pasta in the pasta bowls and top the pasta with the mussels and the sauté mixture. The wine we are having is:

Year: 2006
Winery: Wakefield
Region/Country: South Australia
Varietal: Chardonnay
ALC: 13.5%

The wine is a very light yellow and almost has a slight green look to it in the glass. The nose is citrus and maybe some very light summer melon. There is another smell that I can only describe as spice but it is not spicy as in hot, but spice as in a cooking spice.

The first sip is very pleasant and catches me off guard. I expected that this Chardonnay will be like other Chards I have tried and like some of the Chards I have reviewed here, and it is not. It is absolutely fantastic!! It has a definite citrus taste and the presentation on the palate is crisp and clean. Honestly, I check the label to be sure that I am drinking Chardonnay.

This is not like any Chardonnay that I have ever had before. Leaving the oak or wood out of the wine equation is a great idea. There is no after taste and nothing is left on the palate after having several sips. Naturally, after having only one unoaked or unwooded Chardonnay, I do not know if this is unique to this particular brand or if they are all like this. So I will have to try a few more to see how the others compare.

But for now, if you can find this one, get it. I don't think you will be disappointed.

You can take a look at the front label of this wine right here: Promoised Land Unwooded Chardonnay Front Label

You can also take a look at the back label of this wine right here: Promoised Land Unwooded Chardonnay Back Label

Until next time, let me know what is on your mind, and how you are doing, O.K.?

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Jim Fortune - the Bella Online Wine Guy