Negotiating the minefield of paying corkage

There is nothing more likely to anger diners than restaurants charging an excessive corkage fee for the special wine they have brought with them.

Equally, however, restaurateurs can be incensed by patrons trying to avoid buying a wine from their carefully curated list.

Corkage, for those in the dark, is a charge made by a restaurant or hotel for serving wine that has been brought in by a customer, often from their own cellar. 

These wines are often older and from a vintage that marks a special occasion.

The restaurant charges a fee for opening and serving these wines, covering their costs from staff time, the possible use of a decanter, use of glassware, breakages and washing and drying the glasses.

And also, of course, to make up for the fact that they do not sell a wine from their own list.

This is not an issue for unlicensed or BYO restaurants, who often impose just a minimal corkage charge.

But licensed restaurants rely on profits from wine sales to subside their food sales.

At a hole in the wall cafe, $10 a bottle might be seen as a reasonable corkage fee. At a more upmarket restaurant I would consider $20 to $50 a bottle fair.

But a restaurant in London has hit the headlines by imposing massive mandatory corkage charges.

Dorian, in the chic Notting Hill region, is charging £100 (just a shade under $200 Aus) for diners to bring their own bottle of wine.

It has also an extra stipulation that customers must spend at least £50 on top of that on wine from the list.

The cheapest bottle on the Dorian wine list is £50 - so the absolute minimum cost would be £150..

Dorian says it could not make enough money to survive on food alone.

The average corkage fee in the UK is £12 to £15 per bottle of still wine opened on-site, which seems fair enough.

I'd be choosing somewhere other than Dorian to dine, but there are a few key rules to follow.

First, let a licensed restaurant know in advance that you want/plan to BYO one or more bottles. And confirm that is acceptable. 

Then, make sure you know what corkage charges will be before booking your table. 

Is there a per-table corkage fee, or a per bottle fee? Is there an extra charge of magnums and other large-format bottles?

And make sure you get all the charges in writing, so there are no debates when you get the bill.

It is also considered extremely poor form to bring a cheap "supermarket" wine to a fine dining establishment - and you will probably not be allowed to BYO a wine that is on the restaurant's own list. Keep it classy.