Times are bad in the restaurant business. The sick economy has forced many prospective diners to eat at home instead of going out, and when they do dine in restaurants, they cut back. They may go to less expensive restaurants, share dishes, skip courses—and bring in their own wine.
Bringing your own bottle is a well-established custom in Wine Country, where many people own or work at wineries. But it’s a sore point for a lot of restaurant owners. Most question the practice, but generally let patrons bring in their own wine, then charge corkage fees to compensate.
The fees are typically $10 to $20, but French Laundry charges $50 and won’t let you bring in any wine on its extensive list. However, it has wines that cost less than that corkage, and they’re perfectly good.
Many restaurants will forgive one corkage if you buy a bottle. Others have special deals to attract customers. Some never charge corkage, while others waive it on off nights early in the week. This—along with special meals—has become a common and growing practice as restaurants try to attract customers.
One reason people like to bring in wine is that wine in restaurants is expensive. In Europe, you might get a carafe for a few dollars, but here, restaurants mostly feel they should charge plenty. A typical markup is three times wholesale, which means a bottle costs twice retail, but some of the markups are ridiculous. A few restaurants are more moderate. Market in St. Helena charges $14 over retail; the Napa Valley Wine Train adds $15. Bistro Fumé and Brix charge twice their wholesale cost rather than the typical three times. Hurley’s charges 1.5 or 2.5 times. Carneros Inn charges 1.7 times wholesale on selected wines. Michael Chiarello’s new Bottega in Yountville has the best wine prices in Napa Valley as far as I know, but so many people bring in bottles that Chiarello may start charging more.
On top of that, few offer wines equivalent to what most people drink at home, which are those costing less than $10 retail. The restaurants try to justify the wines sold and markup by pointing out their costs to stock and clean glassware as well as the wine itself. One local restaurant told me it spends $300 per month in glasses and decanters. Though that sounds high, Bottega says its cost is more than twice that.
In truth, wine markups are a good source of revenue, one most restaurants need badly. It’s not easy to make a living running a restaurant, and selling wines is as much a part of the business as preparing the food.
If you enjoy wine with dinner, not every bottle has to be special. I think casual restaurants should have some wines by the glass in the mid-single digits, which is easy, considering you can buy perfectly acceptable wines at retail for $5 to $10 per bottle. I also think wine prices should be in line with food. If most people order pastas or pizzas for under $10 or $12, for example, there should be glasses for $5 or $6, and some decent bottles for no more than $20 or so.
One real lack, in Napa Valley at least, is good, inexpensive house wines such as those you find in Europe. Some excellent wine perfectly suitable for this use is sold in 3-liter boxes, but apparently, many restaurants would rather not sell wine at all than sell it at reasonable prices. It’s interesting that a few have it on tap, including The Wine Spectator Restaurant at the Culinary Institute of America in St. Helena, Cuvée in Napa and Oxbow Wine Merchant in Napa.
The real rip-off at most places is wines by the glass. Most places charge the wholesale cost of a bottle for one glass of wine, and get five glasses (rarely four) from that bottle. It’s often worth buying a half bottle or a bottle even if you take some home—or paying the corkage charge to avoid spending $12 for a single glass of wine as an aperitif, and surely for two.
Personally, I don’t usually take wine to a restaurant. I’d rather they have reasonable prices. Then everyone wins. Nevertheless, a few places have poor lists or grossly overpriced wines, and I don’t hesitate to take wines there. I also think it’s appropriate to take a special bottle to a restaurant, but never one that’s on its wine list.
Wine pairings are becoming increasingly common for special meals, however, and I recommend them unless you have enough people to buy a number of bottles. Ken Frank says two-thirds of his customers at La Toque choose pairings, and I’m one of them.
I realize many vintners like to take in their own wines, but I think a better practice is to buy your wine off the list and support the restaurant (as Michaela Rodeno of St. Supéry Winery does), or even buy other wines but make it clear where you work and that you’re supporting the restaurant (as John Williams of Frog’s Leap Winery encourages his staff to do).
Free corkage
Some of the restaurants in Napa Valley that don’t charge corkage on at least the first bottle of wine include Bleaux Magnolia, Compadres Rio Grill, Cucina Italiana, Firewood Café, Flatiron Grill, Market, Pizzeria Tra Vigne, Rutherford Grill, Silverado Brewing Co., Silo’s Jazz Club, Tra Vigne, Uva Trattoria, Vercelli and Zinsvalley.
A few places that waive corkage aren’t really wine-oriented, such as Mexican restaurants and microbreweries, while others most certainly are. In most cases, they find their cocktail, appetizer and dessert sales rise when people bring in a bottle of wine. At Rutherford Grill, for example, general manager Don Wetherell says the table tab is actually higher when the patrons bring a bottle. So my suggestion is to feel free to take wine to places that offer free corkage, and especially patronize the places that have special no-corkage nights rather than staying home.
And don’t take wine to other restaurants just to save a few bucks. If it’s a special occasion, don’t complain about the corkage. Some places, like Redd and Bistro Jeanty, really don’t want you to bring in bottles. But if you can’t find a wine you like there, you should probably be eating elsewhere—like Applebee’s.
Paul Franson publishes NapaLife, a weekly newsletter “for people who live in Napa Valley or would like to.” He conducts surveys that include details on corkage and wine policies at most Napa Valley restaurants for the newsletter. NapaLife is $50 per year from www.napalife.com; request a sample copy at paul@napalife.com.
