While out at dinner with some friends, I brought a bottle of nice wine (a $50 Howell Mountain cab from 2006, from one of my favorite small negociant producers) to enjoy while paying corkage. The waiter opened the wine, and... disaster! The wine was definitely corked -- it distinctly smelled of musty basement. So we ordered a $100 bottle from the wine list (a well-known "name brand" winery from Stag's Leap District from 2009), and enjoyed our meal. But, when the bill came... there was still a $25 corkage fee! I didn't want to make a scene, but now I wonder... should I have done so? Given the circumstances, the fee seems a bit over-the-top, after all, the only extra work the restaurant did regarding our wine service was open and sample the corked bottle (we used the same number of glasses, and the restaurant made their 75% markup over the retail price of the wine we did wind up drinking -- it runs around $60 retail here). What're your thoughts?
Answer From Expert Roger Bohmrich MW
Questions such as yours can really only be answered by each of us on a personal level. Frankly, I would have found the experience very disappointing: first, the wine you brought was corked, and, second, the restaurant added their corkage fee even though the bottle was poured down the drain. How a diner is treated in a serious restaurant cannot be, in my opinion, a matter of strict rules; rather, you should be made to feel welcome and comfortable. If the restaurant had been more gracious - understanding that you must have been disappointed when your wine was corked - and not charged their standard fee, you would have left with more positive feelings. A smart restaurateur would have seen this as an opportunity to cultivate rather than alienate a customer. Did you speak to the manager at the time, or did the server alone make this decision?
