corkage

A sommelier pouring wine at the Hostellerie du Château des Fines Roches in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, France. Corkage is a fee charged by a restaurant to serve a bottle of wine that a diner has provided.

cork +‎ -age.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkɔːkɪdʒ/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkɔɹkɪd͡ʒ/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: cork‧age

corkage (countable and uncountable, plural corkages)

1. A fee charged by a restaurant to serve wine that a diner has provided.

   Synonyms: corking fee, opening fee

   • 1827, [Christian Isobel Johnstone], “The Exile”, in Elizabeth de Bruce. [...] In Three Volumes, volume I, Edinburgh: William Blackwood; London: T[homas] Cadell, →OCLC, page 224:

     While the Black-nebs wanted only the tea and sugar cheap, and a drap brandy at a reasonable rate, I was hand in glove wi' them; and ga'e them ben the house to meet in, free o' a charge—save the natural corkage.

   • 1873 April, “Taking the Vail”, in Tinsleys’ Magazine. An Illustrated Monthly, volume XII, London: Tinsley Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 359:

     ‘Corkage’ is the peculiar vail of the superior of the establishment. You must, if you are the stranger within his gates, imbibe his very bad 18s. sherry at a charge of 36s., or his fifth-rate bottled beer, or pay the ‘corkage’ fee of 1s. 6d. per dozen on everything of your own ordering from which a cork has to be extracted, and probably also forfeit the bottles, charged, in the case of beer, at 2s. per dozen.

   • 1996, Wine Spectator, volume 21, San Diego, Calif.: The Wine Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 92, column 1:

     Five of their favorite destinations are included below and, although their wines lists are pedestrian, modest corkages are the rule.

• cakeage

• BYO, BYOB

• BYOB on Wikipedia.Wikipedia