It’s not every day that I get to shout out to my home state for something positive in the world of wine, outside of some of the wine itself, that is – usually it’s to rail against the PLCB monopoly.

In this case, the shout out is for an event that is supporting a great cause (The Fund to Benefit Children & Youth), is hosted by a kick-ass race-car-driving Italian (and now PA-resident) legend (Mario Andretti), and like its host is going for a record-breaker – specifically, an attempt to get into the Guinness Book of World Records by breaking the record for the largest ever simultaneous wine tasting.

This event is draped in ass-kicking coolness for me for reasons beyond just having my home-state show well in the wine department.

I grew up primarily in an Italian neighborhood and my ancestry is pretty much all-Italian, so Andretti is like a living legend for me and my old neighborhood buddies.  He’s also an owner of a California winery – which proves yet again that you can take the Italian out of Italy, but can’t take Italy out of the Italian, baby!

The event is being dubbed The Great Pennsylvania Wine Toast and will take place on August 14th, 2010.  Mario is serving as
the event’s toastmaster and will lead the simultaneous tasting via video at all of the participating PA wineries (which includes pretty much all of them). 

A contest is being held to select the toast that will be recited by Mario (I can call him Mario, all Italians are on first-name speaking terms after all) during the event – you can submit a toast (100 words or less) at pennsylvaniawine.com now through June 21.

This is a local event that I can (and probably will) raise a glass to (sorry, couldn’t resist)…

Cheers!

(images: pennsylvaniawine.com, mosindy.net)