Wine Re-corking

Patrons of Massachusetts restaurants who take their own wine to a dining location or bring home an opened wine bottle must have them recorked by the restaurant establishment themselves. There is a small corkage fee charged for the service. Those individuals who have driven home with an opened bottle in the vehicle, and who have consumed alcohol could be charged with drunk driving and having an open container.

Local restaurants have been implicated in incidents of drunk driving. Although there is no legal precedence to make restaurants legally responsible for the actions of their patrons, it is in the restaurant’s best interests to ensure they are not serving patrons excessive amounts of alcohol or serving patrons who are already intoxicated.

Only one bottle of wine per restaurant patron can be resealed. Before permitting the patron to carry out a bottle of wine pursuant to this regulation, the restaurant employee or the holder of a hotel type license or its employees must:

(1) securely reseal the bottle of wine;
(2) place the resealed bottle in a one-time-use tamper-proof transparent bag that insures that the patron cannot gain access to the bottle while in transit after the bag is sealed;
(3) securely seal the bag; and
(4) affix the receipt to the sealed bag.

The law offices of Ed Sharkansky can help you fight DUI or OUI charges. A competent MA DUI lawyer is your best bet when faced with OUI or DUI charges or issues related to open containers in vehicles.