A British sommelier on Saturday smashed the world record for the number of wine glasses held in one hand. Organizers of the event in Beijing said he handled 51 glasses to surpass the previous record of 39.

Philip Osenton, a 43-year-old wine consultant based in Beijing, began handling dozens of glasses at once early on in his career, while working at major London hotels the Ritz and Savoy. He said this laid the groundwork for the feat.

"The carrying of glasses is a sommelier thing," Osenton told AFP. "When I was head sommelier at the Ritz hotel, I've had a 140-cover restaurant to set up in the morning between breakfast and lunch. So basically with two glasses per setting I had 280 glasses to put out within a very short amount of time."

"You have a lot of pressure to get the room ready," he added.

On his first attempt at the record Osenton managed 45 glasses in one go, but made it to 51 on a second try, stacking the glasses on their side on top of each other in his left hand.

The previous record of 39 glasses was set in 2007 by a Filipino man in a Barcelona restaurant, according to Jim Boyce, founder of the China wine blog grapewallofchina.com.