Talk about strange logic..................

[mrdutton]

I question whether or not this belongs here or in RANTS and RAVES, but it sure does involve wine and stupid (IMHO) laws.

Yesterday evening a group of us went out to dinner to a local restaurant that is quite popular, not especially up-scale, but very friendly, familiy oriented with quite decent food. They have a very short wine list: Pinot Noir, Pinot Grigio, Cabernet Sauvignon, Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling and Merlot (one of each).

We were all going to order their hamburgers, which are quite good. Ground and handmade on-site from a mix of ground sirloin and ground chuck.

I'd just bought that case of '98 Jean Descombes Morgon (mentioned elsewhere) and thought that would be great to belong along for our meal.

I called the place ahead of time and spoke with the manager. I asked about bringing in our own and offered to pay whatever corkage fee she thought reasonable. She was not sure about the laws regarding such a thing (because no one had ever asked this favor of her) but she said to go ahead and bring in the wine.

When we arrived, I brought two bottles. One as a gift for the manager. It was then that she informed me that BYOB was absoluetly forbidden. She aplogized and explained that she'd called the owner, he called the Virginia ABC and they said NO, not under and circumstance can a customer BYOB. Not beer, not wine, not hard liquor, not even a soda-pop; no way, no how, forbidden, end of subject.

I said no problem and handed her the cardboard box (which held two bottles perfectly) and told her to take it in the back, remove one bottle for herself and then return the box with the other bottle when it was convenient.

During our conversation, she further explained that if I'd bought the wine at the restaurant and did not finish it, then I could have them cork it and take it home with me. Perfectly legal, she said, but for wine only.

That's ridiculous. This reasoning can't possibly be to try to protect the distributor or the restaurant. The only way I could easily purchase the wine was through a dealer, who had to get it from the same distributor as the restaurant would have gotten it had it been on their wine list.

The law prohibits me from buying wine over the internet, UNLESS I buy the wine from a business physically located and licensed to do business in Virginia.

I could go out of the state, buy the wine elswhere, but then I face a whole bunch more rules and regulations designed to prevent me from 'importing' wine across the state line.

This really is absurd. I can buy the wine in the restaurant, not drink all of it and take it home. But I can't buy the wine and bring it to the restaruant and offer an appropriate corkage fee.

On a lighter note, the manager made sure that our wine was on the house. So we had Pinot Noir with our hamburger instead of Gamay. The waitress was tipped as if the wine had appeard on the tab.

[This message has been edited by mrdutton (edited 05-20-2000).]