A couple tells you they have 20 cases of wine from a family vineyard and want to serve it at the reception. Another client has a case of champagne left over from a product launch. Both are reasonable requests, and both take bar revenue off your books while still needing your staff, your glassware and your license.
A corkage fee is how venues handle that tradeoff. The right fee depends on your license, your bar margin and how much you would rather sell your own wine.
What Is a Corkage Fee?
A corkage fee is a charge a venue or restaurant applies when a client brings their own wine or other alcohol for the venue's staff to serve. It is usually charged per bottle opened, though some venues charge per guest. The fee covers the labor, glassware and service the venue still provides and part of the bar margin it gives up.
What a Corkage Fee Covers
Clients sometimes see corkage as a charge for pulling a cork. It helps to know, and be able to explain, what the venue is actually providing.
- Bartenders or servers to chill, open and pour
- Glassware, washing and breakage
- Ice, buckets and storage before the event
- Liability for serving under the venue's license and insurance
- A share of the margin the venue would have earned selling its own wine
Check Whether You Can Allow Outside Alcohol
Before setting a fee, confirm that your license allows it. Liquor laws vary widely by state and sometimes by county or city, and some license types restrict or prohibit serving alcohol the venue did not purchase. Rules on who may pour, whether the client can take unopened bottles home and how outside alcohol must be documented also differ.
Ask your state liquor authority or a liquor license attorney before you write a corkage policy. Your liquor liability insurer may have its own conditions too.
How to Set a Corkage Fee From Lost Margin
The cleanest way to set the fee starts with what you would have earned selling a comparable bottle yourself. Take your house wine price, subtract your cost, and that gap is the margin a client's bottle replaces.
Consider a venue that sells its house wine at $40 a bottle and pays $12 for it. Each bottle the client brings instead replaces $28 of margin. The venue then estimates its service cost per bottle, the share of bartender time, glass washing and ice, at about $5.
A corkage fee between $15 and $25 in this example recovers service cost and part of the lost margin. Charging the full $33 would match the in-house bottle and likely push the client to buy your wine instead, which may be exactly what you want.
- Find your house wine margin per bottle
- Estimate labor and supply cost per bottle served
- Decide how much of the lost margin to recover
- Round to a clean number clients can remember
Per Bottle or Per Guest?
Per-bottle corkage is the most common format and the easiest for clients to understand. It tracks actual use, though it needs someone counting empties at the end of the night.
Per-guest corkage is simpler to bill. It suits events where the client brings all the wine and a predictable amount will be poured, such as a seated dinner with wine at each table. It can feel unfair to a light-drinking crowd, so state the logic in the proposal.
Write the Policy Around the Fee
The fee is one part of a corkage policy. The rest sets the conditions that keep service safe and simple. A clear policy usually covers which types of alcohol are allowed, often wine and champagne only, and that bottles must arrive sealed. It should say that only venue staff may pour, set a delivery deadline before the event, and state what happens to opened and unopened bottles afterward.
Many venues limit corkage to wine and sparkling wine and keep spirits in-house. Spirits are harder to portion and monitor, and keeping them on your own bar protects both margin and responsible service.
How Corkage Fits With Your Other Fees
Corkage sits next to a few related charges that clients sometimes confuse. A food and beverage minimum is a spending floor for catering and bar, and many venues exclude client-supplied wine from counting toward it. A cake cutting fee covers slicing and plating an outside dessert. An outside vendor fee covers an outside caterer or bar service.
List each fee separately in your proposal with one line explaining what it covers. Clients accept fees they understand, and separate lines also keep your revenue reports clean.
Review It After Each Season
At the end of each season, pull every event that paid corkage and compare the fees collected to the bar revenue similar events earned. If corkage events consistently earn much less, raise the fee or offer a wine package priced close to it.
Also look at how many corkage requests turned into wine package sales once the client saw the numbers side by side. If that share is growing, your pricing is doing its job. If almost nobody switches, a short tasting of your house wines during the menu meeting can change more minds than a lower fee.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is corkage charged per bottle or per person?
Most venues and restaurants charge per bottle opened, which ties the fee to actual service. Some event venues charge per guest because it is simpler to quote and bill. Whichever you use, state it in the proposal and contract.
Do venues have to allow outside wine?
No. Many venues do not allow outside alcohol at all, and some liquor licenses restrict it. Whether you can allow it depends on your license and local rules, so check with your state liquor authority before offering corkage.
Does the corkage fee include glassware and service?
It usually does. Corkage generally covers chilling, opening, pouring, glassware and cleanup for the bottles served. If you charge separately for glassware rental or additional bartenders, say so plainly in the policy.
Can clients take unopened bottles home after the event?
Many venues allow it, though local liquor rules on removing alcohol from licensed premises vary. Some venues require unopened bottles to be packed by staff and collected by a named person at the end of the night. Check your license conditions and write the rule into your policy.
