Wine Corkage

threebeards

For my sins, I'm getting married later this year and the organisational side of things has gone into overdrive (or so she tells me). Various friends of mine who have gone before have tales of woe in relation to the price they've been charged for corkage if they bring their own wine to the reception. I'm bringing in my own wine for the day because frankly I think I'll be rightly ripped off for cheap plonk in the hotel. I have to meet the hotel manager in the next couple of weeks to hammer out the figures and am thinking of insisting that I don't pay corkage as I believe paying a hotel €6 or €7 (or more) to twist a bottle opener a couple of times is akin to legalised larceny. Has anyone had to pay crazy prices for this duty or is it a fee that can forgotten about?

RH

Musashi

When I got married we got Chilean wine which was tasty and about 6 quid a bottle. I was nicely toasted!

bringitdown

I have heard of this before with similar prices being paid...

Say you don't require corkage and supply a bottle opener to each table! Would be far cheaper than E6/7 corkage a bottle...

Weddings, like everything in this country, have gone money crazy.

Best of luck on the day.

Beruthiel

threebeards wrote:

Foram thinking of insisting that I don't pay corkage as I believe paying a hotel €6 or €7 (or more) to twist a bottle opener a couple of times is akin to legalised larceny

as a last resort
you could always line a few of your mates up with some cork screws, how long can it take to open the bottles?

impr0v

I'm open to contradiction on this but I believe the €6 or €7 is not a payment for the physical labour of twisting the cork screw, but for the privilege of drinking your alcohol on their premises. If this is the case then the charge will apply whether or not his mates open them or not, though it is obviously going to be hard for the establishement to quantify the exact amounts.

gandalf

Well if I ever get in a position where I am getting married it will be outside Ireland. My sister got married in Rome in 2003 and it turned out to be a fraction of the cost of a wedding in Ireland which included a "Wedding Party" in the Goat when we came back for all those that didn't travel. (32 came along to Rome for a great 4 days!). It was one of the best weddings I have ever attended (ok I am biased here!).

I would assume the charge covers insurance as well as the physical act of opening, serving and cleaning up the empties. Still a rip off considering the price you are paying for the Hotel already thou.

threebeards

impr0v wrote:

I'm open to contradiction on this but I believe the €6 or €7 is not a payment for the physical labour of twisting the cork screw, but for the privilege of drinking your alcohol on their premises.

I think you could be right but the argument I would have with this is that the amount of additional drink stuffs that will be consumed on the day at the bar should more than make up for any potential monetary loss on the part of the hotel - sure we're ravin' mad lunatics for beer in the wesht don't ya know lol!!!

Chopper

threebeards wrote:

For my sins, I'm getting married later this year and the organisational side of things has gone into overdrive (or so she tells me). ..... I have to meet the hotel manager in the next couple of weeks to hammer out the figures and am thinking of insisting that I don't pay corkage as I believe paying a hotel €6 or €7 (or more) ..........

RH

I'm getting hitched myself in August and we have already brought our wine over from France for the wedding. I think corkage is a fairly standard procedure in many countries and the price you pay generally reflects on where you are. That-is it is based on the average mark-up they would normally charge on a bottle of wine.

For example; My uncle paid $150 in a restaurant in the US for them to open one $300 bottle of wine !!

We are getting married in a 4 star hotel outside of Dublin and were told that the standard corkage fee was €12 per bottle. (average price of wine on their menu was upwards of €25) We managed to get that down to €6 per bottle after some serious negotiation......

Good Luck !
¬
Chopper

Capt'n Midnight

impr0v wrote:

I'm open to contradiction on this but I believe the €6 or €7 is not a payment for the physical labour of twisting the cork screw, but for the privilege of drinking your alcohol on their premises. If this is the case then the charge will apply whether or not his mates open them or not, though it is obviously going to be hard for the establishement to quantify the exact amounts.

Sounds about right, the Vitners (who are NOT a cartel, strange how they keep pointing it out ) would probably have a stance on this.

There is also the issue of wine glasses, cleaning etc. And if you suggested to bring your own they could resonably shoot that down on health and safety grounds. As long as the corkage is a good bit less than the price of the house wine then you'll just have to stump up.

Since the food might not be great why not bring a packed lunch for the guests

impr0v

threebeards wrote:

I think you could be right but the argument I would have with this is that the amount of additional drink stuffs that will be consumed on the day at the bar should more than make up for any potential monetary loss on the part of the hotel - sure we're ravin' mad lunatics for beer in the wesht don't ya know lol!!!

Their argument will be that the margin on the wine, on top of the profits on all other drinks consumed, is built into how they price the entire wedding package and without it, holding your wedding reception will not be a profitable exercise for them. If you bring your own wine, they charge the corkage to make up for the lost profit on the wine. You obviously don't need to be the worlds greatest cynic to disbelive it, but at the same time you cannot fully disprove their argument. I will be very surprised if you manage to negotiate a zero sum for corkage, but by all means try.