English edit

Etymology edit

 
A sommelier pouring wine at the Hostellerie du Château des Fines Roches in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, France. Corkage is a fee charged by a restaurant to serve a bottle of wine that a diner has provided.

cork +‎ -age.

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Noun edit

corkage (countable and uncountable, plural corkages)

  1. A fee charged by a restaurant to serve wine that a diner has provided.
    Synonyms: corking fee, opening fee
    • 1827, [Christian Isobel Johnstone], “The Exile”, in Elizabeth de Bruce. [...] In Three Volumes, volume I, Edinburgh: William Blackwood; London: T[homas] Cadell, →OCLC, page 224:
      While the Black-nebs wanted only the tea and sugar cheap, and a drap brandy at a reasonable rate, I was hand in glove wi' them; and ga'e them ben the house to meet in, free o' a charge—save the natural corkage.
    • 1873 April, “Taking the Vail”, in Tinsleys’ Magazine. An Illustrated Monthly, volume XII, London: Tinsley Brothers, [], →OCLC, page 359:
      Corkage’ is the peculiar vail of the superior of the establishment. You must, if you are the stranger within his gates, imbibe his very bad 18s. sherry at a charge of 36s., or his fifth-rate bottled beer, or pay the ‘corkage’ fee of 1s. 6d. per dozen on everything of your own ordering from which a cork has to be extracted, and probably also forfeit the bottles, charged, in the case of beer, at 2s. per dozen.
    • 1996, Wine Spectator, volume 21, San Diego, Calif.: The Wine Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 92, column 1:
      Five of their favorite destinations are included below and, although their wines lists are pedestrian, modest corkages are the rule.

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