Have you ever been in a restaurant and noticed a couple walk in with their own bottle of wine and wonder, what's the deal? How did these people get special privileges? Are they friends of the owner?

Admittedly, bringing wine to a restaurant is an unusual practice. You wouldn”t carry in, say, a steak and ask the chef to prepare it. Nor do you bring in beer or spirits. Just wine. Corkage comes into ...

As a wine writer as well as a restaurant critic, the questions I get asked most—after "What is your favorite restaurant?"—have to do with wine-corkage fees in restaurants. "Do you know of restaurants ...

This story is from an installment of The Oeno Files, our weekly insider newsletter to the world of fine wine. Sign up here. As the lockdown days of the pandemic recede into memory, one thing that has ...