It was a great try, but The Great Pennsylvania Wine Toast
apparently fell short of its intended goal.

The Pennsylvania Wine Association and 60-70 of the state’s
114 licensed wineries attempted to set a new Guinness World Record for the
largest simultaneous wine toast Saturday, Aug. 14. The current record is 17,540
set in the United Kingdom in May of 2008.

Locally, 460 people showed up at the Chaddsford Winery while
a reported 6,720 attended a wine festival at Seven Springs Mountain Resort in
the western part of the state to take part.

Race car legend Mario Andretti led the toast from the
festival and state Rep. Stephen Barrar, R-160, of Boothwyn, hoisted his glass
at the Chaddsford Winery, owned by Eric and Lee Miller.

Lee Miller said the idea was just an attempt to generate
interest and publicity for the state wineries. She is part of the publicity
group for the association.

“We’re always looking at ‘How do we let people know about
Pennsylvania wines?’ You can go out and you can start campaigns that just say
that Pennsylvania wines are great, and nobody believes you. [So] we decided the
way to get people familiar with Pennsylvania wines is just to get them out to
wineries.”

The attempt to set the Guinness record seemed like a good
way to get people out to try the local offerings, she said.

Miller said last week that she was hoping 70 or 80 of the
state’s wineries would take part with each one drawing about 200 people. The
actual attendance fell short, however. She was also anticipating an attendance
of 10,000 at the wine festival.

The toast offered by Andretti was fed via video to the
participating wineries across Pennsylvania. That toast was preceded here by one
read by Barrar that was submitted by a resident from Sewickley.

Barrar, the chairman of the state House committee on
tourism, said the Millers invited him out to be one of the official counters
for the event and to give the local toast.

“There are good ways of promoting Pennsylvania and what a
great state we are,” Barrar said.

The wine industry generates $2.3 billion into the state
economy, is the seventh largest wine producing state and is the fourth largest
wine grape producer in the country, Barrar said, adding that almost 900,000
people visit Pennsylvania wineries each year.

So far there’s been no official word on how many people took
part in Saturday’s toast, but the Pottstown Mercury is reporting the attempt to
break the record failed.