Corkage (Bring Your Own Bottle of Wine) to BC Restaurants May 23, 2012
In 2003 Alberta relaxed its liquor laws to allow for corkage–the ability for patrons to bring their own bottle of wine to participating restaurants, pay a pre-set corkage fee and open at their meal. The following conditions apply (according to Alberta Gaming Liquor Control)
- The licensee must post a schedule of corkage fees
- The patron must hand over the wine to licensee staff immediately upon entering the premises
- Licensee staff are responsible to bring the wine to the patron’s table, and to open and serve the wine.
When requested, all licensees are obligated to recork partially consumed bottles to be taken home by the customer. (Liquor Licensee Handbook 5.3.15 b).
A Wine Spectator survey in early 2011 showed that 25 of the 50 states in the US allowed for corkage–including our neighboring West Coast states of Washington, Oregon and California.
Why does British Columbia not allow for Corkage (or Bring Your Own Bottle of Wine) at BC restaurants yet? What are the concerns from restaurants? How have these concerns been addressed in other jurisdictions? Would allowing corkage help the wine culture in BC?
Join the chat on Wednesday for a certain fast-paced discussion.
That was a good chat last night but I think having three topics (even though similar) was too many. Would be interesting to discuss each one on its own.
I agree. It led me to believe that we could break it down for future chats into more focussed and manageable chunks
good idea to do the heads up on chat topic…sorry if you’ve been doing this all along and I’ve just clued in!
sorry that was unintentionally anonymous!
Looking forward to the February 22 chat on the future of #BCWine. Will it be doom and gloom and resignation or bubbly, frothy optimism? Or somewhere down the middle?
Let’s go with frothy optimism. It sounds more fun.