Can I legally take my bottle of wine home if I can’t finish it in a UK restaurant?
We recently ordered a bottle of wine and only had half a bottle and felt like taking it home as the babysitter had to leave early and we were told that we could not take it off the premises. Is the new law really so strict or is it for buying beer etc from restaurants?
Tagged with: babysitter • bottle of wine • premises • restaurants
Filed under: All Things Wine
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This is a bit of a moot point in UK law and always has been. Before the changes to licensing restrictions last year, it was Illegal for a restaurant or bar to allow a customer to take alcohol away with them at all unless the premises had an off-licence as well as an on-licence (ie. if the restaurant had a wine-shop attached to it or similar). With the change in the law, all on-licensed premises were afforded permission to sell ‘take-out’ drinks, though these must be sold "…in a sealed container…"
The difficulty now arises from the definition of ’sealed.’ If a bottle of wine has been opened and recorked, it could be considered sealed or could be considered open. If you open a screw-cap bottle and re-cap it, is it open or sealed?
The general consensus within the on-trade (restaurants and bars) has always been (even before the changes in legislation) that a customer may be permitted to leave the premises with the remainder of their bottle at the restaurant manager or general manager’s discretion. As a restaurant manager, my personal policy was always that if more than half of the wine was left in the bottle, I would recork and wrap the bottle and allow the customer to take it away. Unfortunately, not all managers would take this attitude and you must respect the fact that they have to judge the situation as they see fit and are comfortable with.
My suggestion would be that if you encounter the same situation in the future, ask the manager or head-waiter if they would mind recorking and wrapping the bottle for you as you really enjoyed the wine and would not like to waste what is left. Also, ask for details of the wine so that you can buy it again in the future. This little bit of extra embellishment will reassure the manager that you do not intend to swig the wine on the way home, flatter them by complimenting their excellent selection of wines and give them a valid reason to let you keep the bottle (they are unlikely to pour the wine down the drain and just give you the label as this would just appear spiteful).
This tactic may not always work, but you must respect the particular restaurant’s house rules.
I hope this helps.