The Corkscrew | Must Hong Kong diners pay corkage, and if so, how much?

Nothing sparks a heated debate among my fellow sommeliers as surely as the subject of corkage.

This is a vastly misunderstood topic. For diners who like to take a treasured bottle from their collection to share with friends in a restaurant, corkage charges vary widely, from a reasonable HK$150 per bottle to well over HK$600, depending on the establishment. It's fair to say that, in general, high-end restaurants charge more for corkage.

For a restaurateur, it is a minefield. Corkage is charged because a guest is using the restaurant's staff, who open the bottle and serve the wine, and its glassware and decanters. Many restaurateurs also see this as a missed opportunity to sell a guest wine.

Often, regular customers consider it their right to bring a bottle and not be charged corkage (oh, the huge arguments I have seen on this topic). That guest also expects his or her bottle to be served with the same reverence as if it had been ordered from the wine list.

So what is fair corkage? I think it should be the average price of a glass of wine multiplied by the number of people at the table - so, for four guests at an establishment charging, on average, HK$100 per glass of wine, the corkage would be HK$400. Magnums, as they obviously hold more wine, should have a corkage charge 1.5 times that.