Legal to Cork or Not?

Filed in archive Food and Wine on January 1, 2007

One of our favorite local restaurant has a special on Wednesday nights where you can bring your own bottle of wine and there is no corkage fee. Considering that most fees for uncorking your wine can be as much as $20 and the cheapest wines I've seen on this particular menu are about that much, we thought this was pretty cool. So far, we've done it one time, and honestly, we felt that the eatry still came out ahead since, even without buying a bottle of wine there, we managed to spend plenty of money.

We did this without a thought of the legality of it because we assumed the people who ran the place knew if it was okay or not, and as it happens, it is legal where I live as well as many other states. However, I was kind of surprised to read this article, Leave Your Wine at Home, to discover that restaurant may not always know if it's legal or not:

Wisconsin's law about carry-in wine is rarely enforced. So rarely that some of Madison's top restaurants flout the law by advertising they allow carry-in. According to Wine Spectator magazine, the Capitol Chophouse, L'Etoile and Eno Vino Wine Bar all charge a "corkage fee." This means that for a fee ranging from $10 to $20, they'll uncork your wine and serve it to you in their glasses.

"We know from reading Wine Spectator that there are restaurants (that) allow it," said Eric Hanson, government relations director for the Wisconsin Restaurant Association. "The practice is not legal in Wisconsin and we discourage our members from doing it."

Robert Fedorovich, wine director at Eno Vino, said the restaurant has few requests from people bringing in their own wine.

"In all honesty, we haven't had anyone do it," he said. He plans to change his restaurant's listing in Wine Spectator so it will be consistent with the law.

Those Wine Spectator listings make Tony Schiavo at Cafe Continental mad.

Schiavo says he has customers who get angry when he won't allow them to carry in wine.

"I'm tired of having people scream at me," said Schiavo, who keeps photo copies of the law to show his customers, some of whom hail from states where carrying in wine is legal. Laws vary from states, and cities within states. According to Zagat's guide, it's legal to carry in wine in San Francisco and Philadelphia, illegal in Boston, and legal in Chicago, although your Chicago waiter can't pour it for you.

Meredith Helgerson, Wisconsin revenue department spokeswoman, said her department will investigate complaints. She wasn't able to give numbers on how often the law has been enforced, but in fairness to her, she was one of a handful of people working in state government last week.

The only time it is legal to supply your own alcohol is if you're holding a private event in a place without a liquor license, and you give it, rather than sell it, to your guests. Think a wedding at a rented hall.

"Otherwise, it's illegal," she said. "You can't bring it in."