{"id":295469,"date":"2026-01-21T08:09:06","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T08:09:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/295469\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T08:09:06","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T08:09:06","slug":"restaurant-customer-doing-dry-december-quoted-e40-corkage-for-alcohol-free-wine-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/295469\/","title":{"rendered":"Restaurant customer doing \u2018dry December\u2019 quoted \u20ac40 corkage for alcohol-free wine \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Dublin woman who contacted three restaurants<\/a> about bringing her own alcohol-free wine while doing \u201cdry December\u201d was quoted a \u20ac40 corkage fee, the same as for wine with alcohol.<\/p>\n

Denise Kiernan from Clontarf said she did not want to drink, \u201cbut I still wanted to socialise\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t want to be the one in the crowd, \u2018I\u2019m having water\u2019. It just looks nice to be able to say \u2018cheers\u2019 and have a glass of something in your hand that\u2019s similar [to alcohol],\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

The restaurants she contacted did not have a bring-your-own-wine policy, but she made the query because restaurants in general \u201cdon\u2019t have an option for nonalcoholic wine\u201d.<\/p>\n

There are \u201clots of really good varieties available\u201d in supermarkets, and she usually purchases bottles for \u20ac7-\u20ac10 in the shops, she said.<\/p>\n

It raised questions for her when three restaurants quoted \u20ac40 corkage, after her initial query, which \u201cis punitive\u201d. It was the same charge as for wine costing \u201ca couple of hundred euro\u201d, which \u201cdoesn\u2019t make sense\u201d.<\/p>\n

One restaurant told her they offered nonalcoholic wine but on the night were out of stock. She had a nonalcoholic prosecco for \u20ac9, the same price as one with alcohol.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Four lower-alcohol wines for the new yearOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

A second restaurant quoted \u20ac40 but charged \u20ac20 on the night and provided a bucket and ice for her bottle.<\/p>\n

The third restaurant, Picasso, in Clontarf \u201cdidn\u2019t really push it\u201d, Ms Kiernan said. When contacted, Emiliano Isufaj of Picasso said that if somebody ordered alcohol-free wine one or two days beforehand, they would supply it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you bring it yourself \u2013 in a party of four or five and one is not drinking, we don\u2019t charge.\u201d But if it is a party of five or six and everybody is drinking nonalcoholic wine \u201cthen probably I would charge\u201d corkage, he said.<\/p>\n

Ms Kiernan acknowledged \u201crestaurants are going out of businesses all the time\u201d, but she suggested at Christmas time there should be a campaign of no corkage fee for designated drivers who brought their own alcohol-free wine. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s so much emphasis about extra garda\u00ed on the roads and checkpoints\u201d, and this would be an alternative option, she said.<\/p>\n

Adrian Cummins, chief executive of the Restaurants Association of Ireland<\/a>, said it endorsed the Coca Cola campaign that offered the designated driver free soft drinks. But, he said, \u201cit\u2019s up to each business whether they adopt it or not\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr Cummins said that if restaurants did not have alcohol-free wine for sale, they would \u201cmiss out on customers\u201d because of the growing trend of drivers opting for nonalcoholic options.<\/p>\n

He said every restaurant\u2019s wine supplier should be \u201cpushing maybe a bottle or two\u201d of alcohol-free wine so it would be available.<\/p>\n

Ms Kiernan raised the issue with one of her local TDs, Independent Barry Heneghan<\/a>, who asked a parliamentary question about Government guidelines for charges. <\/p>\n

Minister for Enterprise Peter Burke confirmed restaurants could set their own corkage fees with \u201cno legal cap on prices or requirement to link prices to costs\u201d. They are, however, obliged to provide \u201cclear, upfront disclosure of total prices, including any charges, so that consumers can make informed decisions\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr Heneghan said \u201csome people are choosing to drink less and some are choosing to not drink at all, whether they\u2019re designated drivers, minding their health, pregnant or for many reasons people decide not to have a drink\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cRestaurants and pubs and any supplier of alcohol need to reflect that reality. Charging the same corkage for nonalcoholic wine as for alcoholic wine doesn\u2019t really make sense and it can discourage responsible choices.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Dublin woman who contacted three restaurants about bringing her own alcohol-free wine while doing \u201cdry December\u201d was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":295470,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[146784,5051,4005,79,18,2215,19,17,4772,5281,146783,8297],"class_list":{"0":"post-295469","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-adrian-cummins","9":"tag-alcohol","10":"tag-barry-heneghan","11":"tag-business","12":"tag-eire","13":"tag-for-you","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-peter-burke","17":"tag-restaurant","18":"tag-restaurants-association-of-ireland","19":"tag-wine"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115932074062853049","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/295470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}