TRANSCENDENCE wines.... yes please.

Last week at a function at Big Red Sun in Venice, after a hell of a day, I was delighted to be offered a glass of wine by a label named Transcendence.  How appropriate!  Yes, please transcend me out of this day!!  Those of you judging, judge away, sometimes a good glass of wine with good friends is a more effective method of transcending than yoga, meditation or the like...

And happily, the 2008 Syrah from Transcendence was as good as the name indicates it should be.  Grapes grown in the Santa Ynez Valley, just north of Santa Barbara and where our Uncle Brooks Firestone pioneered the wine movement in the 70s by starting Firestone Vineyard, are well suited for Rhone varietals.  A bit about this wine from the winemakers:

This wine has a dark ruby red rim that goes to a purplish blue core…it is DARK. The aromas consist of dark chocolate, espresso and white pepper all wrapped up in a soft toasted oak and vanilla shell. Texturally this wine almost feels three dimensional-it comes in soft but seems to coat your palate from the tongue to the top of your mouth.

The Gummere family blends their passions of wine with supporting non-profits such as Project Transcend, a California non-profit currently working in the Kilimanjaro Region of Tanzania whose goal is to empower individuals and communities through education and skills development to enable them to have sustainable futures.  Several times a year they host wine tasting events to raise money for the different non-profits they help support.

Now you have several important reasons to buy this wine and drink it!  Cheers!