WHAT is it about burgers that induce such cravings?
This week, a friend announced she was off to an upmarket burger bar in Nottingham.
And that was it.
The thought of burger was in my brain and I was apparently, and pathetically, powerless to resist.
At first, the idea just rippled around my mind, but it grew into a wave of desire and by the time I was biking home, I was virtually engulfed by a tsunami of natural urge.
This is completely irrational, of course. Most burgers are a desperate disappointment, and yet the obsession recurs at regular intervals.
On this occasion domestic responsibilities meant there was no chance of a quick fix from one of the usual dealers. The supermarket was the only option.
Clutching a print-out of a Jamie Oliver recipe, I quickly bagged the necessary: premium beef, parsley, garlic, cream crackers, along with the essential garnish of salad, tomatoes, red onion and pickled gherkins.
But what to drink? The answer lay across the road at Lidl. The economy supermarket is seeking to entice middle-class shoppers with a new premium wine selection, launched last week.
It is impressive. Interestingly, there is a bias towards Bordeaux wine among the reds, and judging by the ones I have supped, they are better than a lot of what is on offer at rival chains.
Lidl has gobbled up five per cent of this year's wine production in Bordeaux to deliver this range, which stretches from £6 to £26 and includes bottles from Saint-Emillion, Paulliac, Margaux, and Saint-Estèphe, to name a few.
Bordeaux and beef are natural partners, and since this was an evening burger, a glass of wine rather than a cola seemed appropriate.
I tested two bottles that proved a good match for my dinner. Chateau Laborde 2011 Haut-Medoc Cru Bourgeois (13% alcohol, £8.99) has the Christmas-cake nose characteristic of Merlot-based Bordeaux. It's a youthful, fruity mouthful of black cherry and plums, with quite high acidity and some tannin.
Lidl have employed four Masters of Wine to rate these new offerings.
Chateau Barthez 2009 Haut-Medoc (13.5%, £8.99) scored slightly lower than the Laborde, but I preferred it.
This was an excellent year in Bordeaux, and this wine retains lots of fruit flavour but the tannin and acidity has been smoothed out by a little more time in the bottle. It was delicious.
And the burger wasn't bad either.
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