How much did your hotel charge your for corkage?

Wurly · 21-07-2014 12:50pm #1

We have been quoted €8.50 per bottle by the Four Seasons, Carlingford. I could be wrong, but I think that's quite expensive.

I'm going to haggle with them but just wanted to get a feel for average corkage prices charged by hotels. Thanks for any help.

ABajaninCork · 21-07-2014 12:54pm

I reckon about E5-7 a bottle is reasonable corkage for still wine. Expect to pay E15-20 a bottle for sparkling (prosecco, champagne, cava).

Might be worth checking out the prices for the venue's wines, and comparing to BYO? If you're having a toast drink, might be cheaper to buy a round rather than providing sparkling wine, some of which will be wasted as lots of people tend not to drink it!

If you're providing your own drinks, make sure the bottles are counted in and out and get the venue to sign for the same.

Wurly · 21-07-2014 12:57pm

We are hoping to provide our own wine with dinner. A toast option is actually a great idea. I'll talk that over with himself.

ABajaninCork · 21-07-2014 12:59pm

Allow half a bottle per person. That'll give you some idea what to buy/budget for with the venue.

shane b · 22-07-2014 8:59am

We paid € 8 euro a bottle but that was a about 4 years ago and the Hose wine was €22 a bottle. We bought Santa Rita wine from O'Briens wines under a special offer @ €8 a bottle at the time. They delivered to the hotel for us free and they also took back any bottles we didnt use. So we didnt have any bottles left over.

ABajaninCork · 22-07-2014 9:20am

Most wine merchants will provide wine on a sale or return basis.

whiskeyman · 22-07-2014 2:21pm

it can vary greatly depending on the venue.
From all the places I checked, I got around €8 to €10 for wine and €10-15 for the reception sparkling.

if you want the wine to be 'flowing', I'd recommend 3/4 of a bottle pp, and try and get some on sale or return as the guys have mentioned below.
Better too much than too little!

Sir Arthur Daley · 22-07-2014 2:24pm

Running out of wine would be a disaster, i would recommend a bottle pp.

ABajaninCork · 22-07-2014 2:39pm

I wouldn't. If you have for example 150 guests at a wedding, and you buy the hotel's drink, that works out to about 3k (using a price of E20 a bottle, 75 red and 75 white). That's a LOT of money to budget for wine at dinner, and is frankly ridiculous. Even if you BYO, you're looking at least 2k. And it doesn't include a toast drink, if you're having one, or the meal come to that. A lot of people don't drink wine as a rule, and will only sip at it to be polite. There's little to no chance of running out, if you budget things properly. Half a bottle is the usual rule of thumb. You can go as far as 3/4 bottle, but no way should anyone be giving guests a bottle each. That can also lead to disaster...

Like whiskeyman & I have said, get the drink on a sale or return basis if going BYO. Get the venue to count the bottles in and sign to say x bottles received. Do the same when leaving. That way you can keep some kind of control over the bottles.

berrecka · 22-07-2014 3:38pm

After the last few weddings I have been to, I am definitely budgeting for a bottle per person - and they will be vulgarly left on the tables so people feel free to dig in (at least one bottle of each at any one time). Plus 2-3 cocktails for a drinks reception, 2-3 glasses of champagne on entry, and a (probably homemade) toast drink.

What is not finished that night wont be going back anywhere, but will be enjoyed between us and our friends and families for as long as it lasts after the wedding.

ABajaninCork · 22-07-2014 3:44pm

So at least 5k on drinks alone then! Hope you have VERY deep pockets...

berrecka · 22-07-2014 3:57pm

5k? That's an awful lot, but I suppose if they have it and are happy to spend it, fair play to them. All food - canapés, 3 course meal, afters food - and drinks will cost me about that. Maybe we have been lucky calling in favours from caterers and friends in the bar trade though.

ABajaninCork · 22-07-2014 4:01pm

Very!! I have friends in catering in London. One of them got married 20+ years ago. Drinks at wholesale prices came in about £6k. Wedding was only 60 guests...

Sir Arthur Daley · 22-07-2014 4:05pm

Second last wedding I was at was done on a tight budget, wine glasses were filled at the start and only 1 refill. The glasses were only filled up 3/4s too at the most. My table and alot of other tables ran dry pretty quick. We reverted back to filling the wine glasses with water.
It would have been a fine thing if they didn't have any wine at all.

ABajaninCork · 22-07-2014 4:14pm

Sir Arthur Daley wrote: »

Second last wedding I was at was done on a tight budget, wine glasses were filled at the start and only 1 refill. The glasses were only filled up 3/4s too at the most. My table and alot of other tables ran dry pretty quick. We reverted back to filling the wine glasses with water.
It would have been a fine thing if they didn't have any wine at all.

That's pretty bad too. It would've been better to have a 'dry' wedding, and tell the guests to buy their own!

I took the hotel's house wine when we married. Perfectly drinkable. 20 bottles of each with the meal, mulled wine on arrival with tea, coffee, biscuits and nibbles, a round of drinks for the toast. Job done! We had 100 people sitting down for the meal, and another 40 after. Worked well.

Sammy2012 · 22-07-2014 4:16pm

Got our corkage for free...supplied all our own wine and it cost about 5k..

berrecka · 22-07-2014 4:16pm

I think that sometimes comes down to the service. I have been at so many weddings where there is plenty of wine available, but the servers are busy serving food etc (and rightly so, of course) so that the wine gets left behind and glasses remain empty until guests start asking for it. Only us obnoxious ones will ask, others will complain behind the b&gs back that there wasn't enough wine, others will happily assume that it was down to a tighter budget that the wine just wasn't there.

berrecka · 22-07-2014 4:17pm

Yea free corkage is a blessing. The joy of the non-hotel wedding!

Sammy2012 · 22-07-2014 4:19pm

Our free corkage was in a hotel..and a very popular one too.. we had over 300 at it but at the time free corkage was part of the package.

22-07-2014 4:47pm

Free corkage, wine bought in France.

Gatica · 22-07-2014 5:43pm

We got corkage rate of 10 for wine and 12 for bubbly, and that was AFTER haggling it down...

stinkle · 22-07-2014 8:38pm

Ours was 8.50 for wine and 11 for sparkling. An earlier poster was right that lots of people don't drink wine, looking back at our pics many men had pints at the drinks reception ( I then felt bad we didn't think to have bottles of beer supplied), and at the meal you can see lots of pint glasses/bottles/shorts on the table though we did a drink of choice too so that might explain it. Don't forget the non drinkers, parents who want to keep a sober eye on kids and designated drivers either.

We had plenty of bottles left over of red and white and service wasn't stingy on the day

How much did your hotel charge your for corkage?

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