Cork-and-carry law a hit with restaurateurs, diners.

• Author: Skiles, Wes
• Position: Attitude at Altitude

Deciding whether to order a bottle of wine with dinner--or not--has gotten a lot easier since July 1 when Coloradans received permission from their legislature to cork an unfinished bottle of wine to take home in their cars along with the rest of their leftover restaurant meals.

An amendment to a new Colorado law that lowers the blood-alcohol level for determining whether a driver is under the influence, from 0.10 percent to 0.08 percent, also allows diner/drivers to cork an open bottle of wine and take it with them.

Pete Meersman, president and CEO of the Colorado Restaurant Association, says the idea of corking a bottle to take home is popular with consumers, and restaurant managers in the metro area seem to agree. "If a customer doesn't want to finish, or can't finish a bottle of wine, they no longer have to," Meersman said.

Owners of Gabriel's Restaurant in Sedalia, Matthew and Jan Bundy, also said diners are getting excited about the option to take home their leftover Bordeaux. "If a customer is considering a second bottle of wine, or one person at the table prefers a Chardonnay while another prefers a cabernet sauvignon, it solves the problem of having to finish both bottles," Bundy said. And Bill Dutton, co-owner and general manager of Denver's Buckhorn Exchange, went so far as to advertise the new service on the restaurant's wine list and create wine doggie bags for the occasion.

"Sales of full bottles definitely increased during the last six months of last year," Dutton said. Bundy, too, said that while fine-dining establishments in the metro area were hit hard during the past two-year economic recession, diners seem to be returning to their favorite haunts, and wine sales have increased since July when the new law went into effect. Dutton said during the first six months of 2004 most consumers seemed to prefer to order a split, or half a bottle of wine rather than a whole one.

Groups opposed to the...