Sometimes even the simplest meal is an opportunity to learn. Such was the case with my very limited lunch yesterday. I pan fried the last slices of my sourdough bread loaf, spread a little butter on the toast, covered each piece with thinly-sliced Tuscan Prosciutto, added very thin, mandoline-cut slices of Purple Daikon Radish, and sprinkled lightly with sea salt crystals from the Grenadines. So far, so good…

Now, for the dilemma….I had two open bottles of wine, both from Jan d’Amore. Do I want the white wine (Chicca, from Pantaleone, Passerina grapes) or the red wine (Il Purgatorio, from Federico Curtaz, Nerello Mascalese)?

Side-by-side, these candidates offered their best to me in my comparisons. My conclusions: both were good, neither was a slam-dunk choice, and I felt the Etna Rosso was just a bit better match. Too bad I had no friends with me to join the experiment. My guess is that each would have had his/her own opinions, and so we could have had a lively discussion as a result. Perhaps next time…