Haunted By The Same Melody
TASTING NOTES: “Our 2022 Le Dessein allows the classic marriage of Grenache, Mourvèdre and Syrah to shine with bright red fruit and warm spices. The nose is bright, opening with a burst of pomegranate and strawberry-rhubarb aromas. Syrah contributes sweet spices like cinnamon and clove, while the Mourvèdre brings big brambly flavors. The Grenache brightens the blend and is responsible for candied red fruit flavors. The balance between these three varietals is displayed on the palate, as the broad yet velvety structure combines effortlessly with the lively acidity to give the wine length and continued bursts of flavor.” (AbV 15.2%)
VARIETALS: 47% Grenache, 34% Mourvèdre, 19% Syrah
BARRELS: 16 months in French oak (all neutral barrels, ~6% large format)
PAIRS WITH: N/A
THAT REMINDS ME OF: Le Dessein — French for “the purpose” or “the design.”
There’s a concept in French called idée fixe — a fixed idea, an obsession that won’t let go. The composer Hector Berlioz used it as a musical term in his Symphonie Fantastique (1830) to describe a recurring melody that haunts every movement of the piece, twisting and transforming but never quite leaving. But long before Berlioz gave it a name, the idée fixe was just… the thing people called a person with a plan. A purpose. A dessein.
The history of art and science is basically a museum of people with an idée fixe who everyone else found mildly exhausting. Nikola Tesla was convinced he could transmit electricity wirelessly across the entire planet. Buckminster Fuller wanted to cover midtown Manhattan with a geodesic dome two miles wide to control the weather. The architect Antonio Gaudí spent the last 43 years of his life on a single cathedral in Barcelona — La Sagrada Família — and still didn’t finish it. (They’re still not done. Current estimated completion: 2033. More than 140 years in the making.) These are not people who drifted into their life’s work. These are people with a dessein so fixed it outlasted them.
Which, honestly, is not the worst thing to be.
