Obviously got the year wrong. In those days I had a lot of Roumier from a lot of vintages.
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The rules about open containers depend on the state. In California, okay if locked in trunk.
-Al
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Beat me to it. I was doing the math, scratching my head and thinking that Mark might have violated laws about serving the under aged. 
As long as he did it out of site, at least the restaurant should be off the hook.
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so you gave wine to an underage waiter!? Jk*
*didnāt see other math whizzes
I always ask the restaurant when making a reservation if it is allowed and let them be aware I will be decanting at home.
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Been there, done that. My son spat it out.
A little later he did enjoy a sip of Champagne.
Took my daughter to a restaurant recommended here for wine selection and good food while on college visits. I was planning to order a bottle but they had a nice KLWM white Burg by the glass so ordered that to have while looking over the extensive list. They brought me and my daughter glasses. No, sheās 17, not yet I tell the server. I chose a wonderful second-growth Bordeaux from the 80s, very reasonable. They show up with two big Grassl glasses, like āshe can skip the Macon but sheās not going to skip the good stuffā. 
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We were recently in Whistler for vacation and had a much more positive restaurant experience. Yes the server decanted out of sight, and told me that they didnāt taste the wine for correctness because I had brought it. (It was a nice wine, but lowly compared to 2000 Ducru. The decanter seemed full. 
)
I offered a taste to the primary server and later in the meal she came over with a glass. I gave her a pour (I like that she left it to me to pour) and took the risk of tasting it in front of me. She expressed that she really liked it but what else was she going to say. 
As we were finishing the meal, there were still a couple of ounces left in the decanter so I decided to offer the remainder to the secondary server who was coming over, I assumed to clear dishes. As I started to offer, I realized that he had brought over a glass. I guess his colleague enjoyed it after all. It really made me smile and put a great cap on a nice dining experience.
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Good story.
Iāve sent leftovers of quality wines to kitchen staff many times.
I wonder if they drink it.
Probably not. I imagine them hot and sweaty and buzzing after service. Iād head to the nearest bar for a frosty one.
Maybe Iām wrong ā¦ 
I have written about this before.
December 03 I was on a golf weekend with a bunch of rednecks and Sunday sort of leaked into Monday. One buddy stayed with me and we spent all Sunday and half of Monday betting on Farve after his dad died.
We were pretty lit and would look at one another āheās gonna kill the Raidersā and just bet more. We had bets all over town but a big piece at Orleans.
You know the story, think it was 35-0 Green Bay at half. We went to Del Friscoās in both jubilation and inebriation.
Now my buddy Butch is nearly as big as me, a backwards country TN hillbilly and he was in rare form. His current form is in Federal Prison or Iād ask for his input here.
Anyway, we ordered stone crabs and they just sucked. Too old in all likelihood with very fishy odor. We tried to send them back and staff explained this is how stone crabs present which resulted in my buddyās retort āMF, we live in Florida and have eaten more stone crabs than you, more pussy tooā and letās just say the night went downhill from there.
I think we ordered Cos dā Estournel and waiter/somme presented bottle and then tried to take it somewhere to decant it. āListen here foolboy, open that bottle right the eff here. You think weāre idiotsā was about what Butch said.
Pretty hostess came to us after we ate the steaks and told us to leave money on table and bolt out of restaurant as staff had gathered and wanted to kick our drunken asses. She had a taxi waiting for us. Got her number and we dated a bit over the next year. She always reminded me she that saved us. We were so hung over collecting $$ that Tuesday, lawd.
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Iāve considered doing this myself, but Iāve been told by restaurants that they donāt allow previously opened bottles into the restaurant. Is this a state by state thing? Do you call ahead and make sure they allow a double decanted bottle?
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Itās not that hard to jam the sucker all the way back in. You just have to pull it with an ah-so to avoid leaving an obvious wormhole.
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We have an agreement with the chef/owner of one of the restaurants we go to for tastings around here: he waives corkage, we make sure he gets at least one small glass of everything we open. Iām not sure who wins thisā¦
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BTW, this is excellent manors on behalf of her.
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I agree one of the best aspects of wine is the connection it creates between people.
In my humble opinion, wine should be separated from the greater alcohol laws, with no individual state control. It is just too confusing and unnecessarily overbearing, at least in terms of wine 
Not even close, you do.
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Yes and yes.
It was tongue in cheek. We donāt only bring 200$+ wines.
I get it, but a restaurant you enjoy that also allows you to bring in wine corkage free is a gem to be valued. Being ITB I always got a lot of leeway on corkage fees and always shared and tipped higher to say thanks as I never wanted to take it for granted.
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