Take Your Wine Bottle Home

Filed in archive Wine News on May 7, 2006

I remember a few years ago dining out a restaurant that was literally blocks from our house. It was an Italian place, very gourmet, fabulous food and good wine as well. We used to joke about how we could always walk home if we go too tipsy to drive. But, drinking wine out is an issue for a lot of folks. You want to enjoy some wine with dinner, but you have to be careful that you don't over do it.

Back then, in Florida, you couldn't take the bottle home if you didn't finish it. This is still the case in many other states, but more and more states are realizing it makes more sense to let you take the wine home then to put wine drinkers in the position of having to drink it all at the restaurant. Most states that have given the go ahead on this require that the restaurant put the Cork back in the bottle and you put the bottle in the trunk of your car.

Illinois is one state that has realized how a law that allows diners to take home wine but still keeps within the standards of not allowing open containers of alcohol makes sense. From Put a cork in it: Finish wine at home: The General Assembly passed a measure last month that carved out an exemption to the state's liquor laws for wine drinkers. If signed into law by Gov. Rod Blagojevich, the exemption would allow you to take an unfinished bottle of wine home from a restaurant.

Restaurants typically offer many more wines by the bottle than by the glass. And ordering a wine by the bottle typically is cheaper than by the glass. A bottle is four generous glasses.

But not finishing the bottle could be wasteful - and expensive. Illinois' liquor laws prohibit open containers of wine or any other alcohol in vehicles.

With current law, a person cannot have an open container in the passenger area of a vehicle, but an open container can be in the trunk of the car. Sgt. Rick Hector, Illinois State Police spokesman, said for an SUV, which doesn't have a trunk, it's up to the officer and the local state's attorney to interpret the law.

John Kemmerer, assistant state's attorney in the DUI division for Winnebago County, said SUVs are tough calls, because even the back storage area of an SUV could be considered a passenger area.

"Under this bill, there are set guidelines and rules for having open liquor in your vehicle," said the bill's Senate sponsor, Sen. John Cullerton, D-Chicago. "We are setting out to make it clear that you can do this."