Four Brandywine members to pour at Philly fete

At least half of the members of the Brandywine Valley Wine Trail have a date with history next week. Four or five will be pouring at the party marking the grand opening of the newly renovated Independence Visitor Center in Philly. That event, scheduled for Thursday, April 16, also will celebrate the 15 million visitors who have come through the doors since 2001.

Set to begin at 5:30 p.m. and continue for three hours, it is by invitation only. Guests can expect live music as the backdrop for hors d'oeuvres and cocktails. Trail administrator Karen Cline, who just returned from a marketing workshop in Ohio that I'll puost about in the next couple of days, said by phone Tuesday night that Black Walnut, Chaddsford, Paradocx and Penns Woods have committed to serve their wines, and that she's still awaiting an answer from one more trail member.

That party is expected to draw 250 to 275 people, including government officials and members of the tourism industry. It's the kind of exposure in one grand evening that would be hard to put a price on.

"We just decided yesterday, in fact, [to participate], she said. "It [the renovated building] sounds really neat. They redesigned I think she said the north end of the visitors center . . . they're going to have digital screens and lots of really flashy visitor-friendly stuff going on in their center."