corkage

plural corkages

1. countableuncountableA fee charged by a restaurant to serve wine that a diner has provided.

   Five of their favorite destinations are included below and, although their wines lists are pedestrian, modest corkages are the rule.

   1996, Wine Spectator, volume 21, San Diego, Calif.: The Wine Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 92, column 1

   2 more examples

   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.

   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

   ‘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.

   1873 April, “Taking the Vail”, in Tinsleys’ Magazine. An Illustrated Monthly, volume XII, London: Tinsley Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 359

   Synonyms: corking fee, opening fee