Columnist John Katsilometes: A toast to thousands swilling wine from plastic cups

Monday, Jan. 2, 2006 | 7:20 a.m.

Prior to New Year's Eve, the largest toast given by Oscar Goodman was a couple of years ago at his daughter's wedding.

"We had 300 people there at the Four Seasons," Goodman said Saturday night, a few minutes before following Cheap Trick on the Third Street Stage and leading several thousand ebullient celebrants in what was billed as the world's largest toast. "It was a lot different than this."

Fewer guests at the Goodman wedding were clad in Harley-Davidson fashions, to be sure.

The objective was to provide New Year's Eve revelers with a small plastic cups of Beaulieu Vineyard Wines (more commonly known as BV Wines) chardonnay and attempt, at 11:30 p.m., to break the Guinness Book of World Records mark for the world's largest toast.

I can report that most of the reported 16,000 revelers on hand did just that -- and also toasted with long purple and green decanters, foot-tall to-go cups, plastic footballs and any other variety of beverage container. A pair of staggering celebrants even dumped their BV vino onto the street and poured in Mike's Hard Lemonade.

Whether the crowd surpassed the standing record of 10,079 conducted by a Japanese sake (yuck) company a couple of years ago in Tokyo won't be known for six to eight weeks as BV Wines and R&R Partners of Las Vegas await official word from the meticulous representatives from Guinness.

There were 12,500 small cups of wine covered with snap-on lids (which, I almost hate to note, looked like medical samples) to be distributed from five stations; at least one of those stations was left with several dozen cups after the toast.

No matter. As Goodman noted, "When BV came to us with the idea, they knew Las Vegas was a place that took parties to the next level. We wanted to beat the sake crowd and I think we will."

(I am blowing a noise-maker now.)

NoteMart

More from a dizzying New Year's Eve in downtown Vegas:

Oscar winner: Taking stages on First and Third streets were Spin Doctors, Gin Blossoms and the above-mentioned Cheap Trick. Goodman was asked if he knew anything about the bands performing during the eight-hour party.

"Let me get my cheat sheet," Goodman said, pulling a business card scrawled with lyrics from his wallet and starting in on a Cheap Trick anthem. "I want you, to ... um ..."

To want me?

"Yes," he said, singing. "I want you, to want me!"

Tark alert: Those plastic footballs seemed to be everywhere; as I walked up Fremont a guy knocked me from behind and dropped his to the ground, wasting about $5 of precious domestic lite beer.

As the football landed with a splash, I and another guy yelled "fuuuumble!" It was Danny Tarkanian, son of former UNLV men's basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian, current secretary of state hopeful and onetime Senate District 11 candidate, making his first New Year's Eve visit to Fremont Street.

"I haven't been downtown since they put the light show up," Tarkanian said. "It's great, a great thing for people who want to see a lot of entertainment. It's phenomenal" ...

Queen for a night: As Channel 8's Kevin Janison prepared for a live report from the Third Street Stage a woman wearing a sequined Rolling Stones T-shirt asked him if she might file the report and give him the rest of the night off. A bemused Janison asked the woman's credentials; she replied: "I'm sort of famous. I own the Dairy Queen on Lake Mead and Buffalo."

"Wow, I go there all the time," Janison said, and handed Joni Scarcelli the microphone (it was dead) for a pretty credible run-through.