Bring your own bottle

Diners can enjoy better wine for less, with many restaurants becoming more amenable to the idea of BYO, for a corkage fee, writes JOHN WILSON

BUYING A BOTTLE of wine in a restaurant can be an expensive business. Most restaurants rely on wine sales to generate at least half their profits; with all the “early bird” menus on offer, it can be significantly more in the current climate. This is ironic given the huge effort that goes into preparing food compared to uncorking or unscrewing a bottle of wine. But raise the question of wine mark-ups with any restaurant proprietor and you will get a fairly terse response.

I can understand the price of a wine being doubled, or being increased by two-and-a-half times the price, but anything more seems excessive. Adding €10-€15 to a bottle of house wine is one thing. But the more expensive the wine, the less reasonable the mark-up seems.

Some more enterprising restaurants operate a sliding scale with lower mark-ups on more expensive wines. For wine-lovers, a decent bottle of wine is an essential part of dining out, even in a middle-of-the-road restaurant. But buying a good bottle of wine for two can potentially double the price of a meal.

One way around this is to bring your own bottle. At the height of the Celtic Tiger, restaurants did their best to discourage this practice, but many are now quite happy for you to BYOB (bring your own bottle). The idea is not to save money on a cheap bottle, but to drink better. I have done this several times in restaurants recently.

At one, I was charged only €5 corkage. Admittedly it was on a Wednesday night when the restaurant was fairly empty, but I appreciated the gesture. In return, I offered the owner a generous taste of my (very expensive) wine and left a healthy tip, so I don’t think anyone lost out.

As someone who still cannot resist buying wine (despite having a massively bloated cellar) I have no shortage of wines that cost me €25 to €50 a bottle. You could expect to pay €75 to €150 for the same wine in a restaurant, so I would be happy to pay €20 corkage per bottle.

I rang around a couple of Dublin restaurants who were somewhat coy on the issue. Most seemed to be saying that if you had a special bottle, they would make an exception, but it is not something they encouraged. My advice would be to always ring first and ask, and make perfectly clear that you are happy to pay some corkage – €20 would be greater than the profit on a bottle of house wine – and make sure to leave a generous tip.

On a slightly different tack, I hear some hotels – and following on, some wine importers – have lost a significant amount of business supplying wedding wines. In times past, hotels would insist on providing the wine themselves, or add an extortionate amount for corkage. Nowadays, many couples source the wine elsewhere, and refuse to pay any corkage at all. How times have changed.

BOTTLES OF THE WEEK

Chardonnay, Domaine Couillaud 2008 Vin de pays du Val de Loire, 12%, €10.95

The Loire Valley can produce some very tasty Chardonnay. This one is from Château de la Ragotière, one of the very best Muscadet producers. It is light and mineral, with subtle oak, racy green fruits and a crisp dry finish. Think Chablis in other words. Perfect with salmon or chicken dishes. Stockist: Terroirs, Donnybrook, Dublin 4.

Chianti La Pieve 2007, Tuscany, 13.5%, €11.95

The phrase "cheap Chianti" strikes a note of pure terror in the minds of most wine-lovers; it can frequently mean bitter, acidic and watery, all at the same time. There are those who argue the only Chianti worth buying comes from either Chianti Classico or Rufina. However, the La Pieve lacks nothing; this is a full-bodied wine with concentrated cassis fruit and some drying tannins on the finish. It is also keenly priced. I can see it going nicely with game and red meats. Stockists: 64 Wine, Glasthule, Co Dublin; Lilac Wines, Dublin 3; Redmond's, Ranelagh, Dublin 6.

Bergerie de l’Hortus, Pic Saint Loup 2007, 13.5%, €13.34

This is almost the second wine of Domaine de l’Hortus, in my opinion one of the greatest wines of the Languedoc, and one of my all-time favourite wines. Year after year Jean Orliac manages to combine the rich herbiness of the Languedoc with wonderful purity of fruit. At a time when too many winemakers still think extra alcohol and extra oak mean quality wine, his wines stand out as beacons of light.

The Grand Cuvée costs just over €22. The Bergerie is made from a blend of Syrah, Mourvèdre and Grenache, some sourced from other local vineyards. It is smooth, elegant and rounded with clean, slightly savoury, plummy dark fruits. At this price it is a steal. Another excellent 2007 from the south of France, one of the very best recent vintages. Stockist: Wines Direct, 1890-579579, winesdirect.ie.

WINE-TASTING DINNER

On the Grapevine will hold a wine-tasting dinner featuring the New Zealand producers Felton Road in Ely CHQ in Dublin on Friday, January 29th. Rebecca Greening, daughter of owner Nicola Greening, will guide you through the range of wines over a three-course dinner.

Tickets, €95 each, are available from On the Grapevine on 01-2353054 or from Ely CHQ on 01-6720010.

FREE WINE AT SEASONS

Seasons Restaurant at the Four Seasons Hotel in Dublin 4, is offering a complimentary bottle of Olivier Merlin’s Pouilly-Fuissé or Réserve de Léoville Barton 2004 (both very good wines) if you make your dinner reservation for two or more, for February or March, by January 31st. To make a reservation contact 01-6654000.