Unfinished bottle at restaurant?

How do you handle an unfinished bottle, if that ever happens to you, at a restaurant?

G

Ask for a cork, stick it in the bottle and take it away. If you bring a bottle each to a dinner and know that you are not going to drink it all just ask for the corks back. Easier if they have screwcaps. I see no problem if you buy a wine off the list. It is yours as soon as you order it and accept the first pour. IMHO.

How do you handle an unfinished bottle, if that ever happens to you, at a restaurant?

G

NY State law allows taking the opened bottle home with you. However, the restaurant must place the bottle in a sealed bag.

What's the "etiquette" question here?

Are you talking about taking home somebody else's bottle?

BTW, a little off topic, but one of the neatest things about a trade tasting is that there is [or seems to be] this tradition where, at the end of the day, the vintners just leave the opened bottles on the table for people to take home with them.

It's only been in the past several months, maybe a year, that Maryland law has allowed you to take your unfinished wine with you. The law says something about the fact that the opened bottle has to be as far from the driver as possible which, of course, can be very close in some cars. I have done it three times or so and never had a problem asking. The problem I've had is servers or restaurant owners who were unaware of this option, especially just after the effective date. Now it's mainly just the wait staff that I find myself having to educate.

It's only been in the past several months, maybe a year, that Maryland law has allowed you to take your unfinished wine with you...Now it's mainly just the wait staff that I find myself having to educate.

That may have something to do with what used to happen to the unfinished wine.

Technically i.e. by law, it is not allowed in the UK, due to licensing laws - because you have purchased the bottle at an "licensed on-premise" rather than a "licensed off-premise" ...

On the other hand, in France, where there is no legal impediment at all, several wine regions are providing restaurants with bottle bags with their region's wine logo printed on it (e.g. Jurabag in Jura) - this is to encourage people to order a whole bottle (something believe-it-or-not increasingly rare in countryside France for groups of less than 4 people) and then they can take the part-consumed bottle back home with them in the bag.

Hmmm ... etiquette of taking an unfinished bottle from someone else's table ... I've often thought about it in France where it's common that people don't finish a bottle (something that never happens in the UK) ... I confess that once I did sneak a taste from a bottle from the next door table once people had left as no-one else was in the restaurant and the staff weren't watching!

Thanks for the answers.

My use of the word etiquette was imprecise. I have removed it from the title. I was referring to a bottle that I ordered at the restaurant.

How about if the bottle has been decanted at the table?

A good restaurant will set the empty bottle on the table so that diners can know what's in the decanter (at least that's what I do). In that case, I'd undecant it back into the bottle - which is actually a form of redecanting, I guess.

My use of the word etiquette was imprecise. I have removed it from the title. I was referring to a bottle that I ordered at the restaurant.

If it's just legalities that you're worried about, then your biggest problem is with the State Police.

If they pull you over and notice that you've got an open [i.e. opened] bottle of wine on the seat next to you, then you're in deep d** d**.

So just be sure to put it in your trunk [or, if you drive a pickup truck, your bed].

PS: It's always good to make sure that the waiter doesn't run off with the cork - that can really suck when it comes time to re-close the bottle.

[Robin Garr]

My use of the word etiquette was imprecise. I have removed it from the title. I was referring to a bottle that I ordered at the restaurant.

If it's just legalities that you're worried about, then your biggest problem is with the State Police.

If they pull you over and notice that you've got an open [i.e. opened] bottle of wine on the seat next to you, then you're in deep d** d**.

Depends on the state (assuming you're in the US). About 30 of them have take-home laws now, generally requiring that the re-corked bottle be placed in a sealed bag with the receipt. Some require it in the trunk, some simply out of the driver's reach.

Bottom line, though, a majority of the states have made it much more convenient to take home the leftovers than it used to be, the argument being that it's safer to send it home in the bottle than inside the driver.

More background: Wine to Go, 30 Second Wine Advisor, April 14, 2006.

Italians also encouraged the practice IIRC through Operation 'Buta Stupa'.

As a citizen, I'd rather someone took a half-finished bottle back home, than felt bound to have 'just another small glass' because any they didn't drink went down the sink. Less drink-drive gamblers on the road.

I haven't checked lately, but BC used to have a law that said no opened bottles in the passenger compartment.

Wich kind of begged the question if you were driving a hatchback with no trunk.....

I can't remember ever bringing wine home from a restaurant, usually because we're only talking about a quarter of a bottle or less. If it's a particularly interesting wine that I think the restaurant staff might like to try I'll mention that I'm leaving them the bottle and they might want to try it. Even if there's enough for the staff to get a good pour, that's not enough for me to want to schlep back to the house and then deal with for the next day (decant into smaller bottle, gas, whatever...).

Virginia is one of the states that encourages taking leftover wine home for the reason others have mentioned, to keep diners from finishing a bottle when they've already had plenty.

I haven't checked lately, but BC used to have a law that said no opened bottles in the passenger compartment.

Wich kind of begged the question if you were driving a hatchback with no trunk.....

Bill, I'm under the impression that most US states have similar laws, at least I know for a fact that the two states where I've resided (CA and WA) do. In both CA and WA, if there is no completely separate compartment (as in your hatchback example - and vans and SUVs, for that matter), then as far away as possible and obviously out of reach (back in the "hatch" part, in other words) is good enough.