Does corkage hurt restaurant wine sales?

No. A punitive corkage policy does.

A guest sitting at a table with a bottle they brought is still a guest comfortable spending money on wine, in the dining room, for two hours. The first bottle came at their own expense. They brought it, they are proud of it, and they are already in exactly the mood a wine program exists to create.

That is where the second bottle comes from, and the second bottle is the one that pays. It is almost always the trade up, ordered by a guest who is already comfortable and going further than they planned.

A punishing fee closes that table before any of it happens. So does disengagement. When a sommelier writes off the corkage check and skips the Champagne to start, the half bottle, and the dessert pour, the outcome the operator feared becomes guaranteed. The same is true when service quietly degrades, wrong glassware and no decant offered, which makes the fee indefensible to a guest who knows the difference.

iBEVs fouding partner Brad Nugent puts it this way: conversations about in-house selections began with customers who brought their own wine, and many of them became regulars who brought friends. Corkage creates traction, and that kind of relationship cannot be bought with marketing dollars.