House keeps cork in wine bill

 A bill that would allow Texans to bring their own wine into restaurants already serving alcohol is expected to be left pending in a House committee.

Senate Bill 2523, authored by Sen. Tommy Williams R-The Woodlands, quietly cleared the Texas Senate late last month but isn’t expected to advance. The session ends June 1.

The bill has proven controversial within the restaurant industry. Rep. Edmond Kuempel, R-Seguin, the bill’s sponsor in the House, suffered a massive heart attack the day the bill was slated for vote in the House in mid-May. Kuempel is recuperating, but supporters don’t expect the bill will make it out of committee in the waning days of the session.

Jerry Lasco is ready for the bill to be dead. The owner of Max’s Wine Dive, with locations in Houston and Austin, considered the measure an inappropriate intrusion into his business judgment and a threat to his wine-centric business model.

“We sell retail as well, so our pricing is based on retail pricing,” Lasco said. “For our business to survive, our prices have to be competitive, and we have to do a large volume” of wine sales.

Lasco believes restaurants should have the option of allowing or not allowing patrons to bring in their own wine.

Under the bill, restaurants would have been allowed to charge a corkage fee for opening and serving the wine, but the consumer could take what’s left after meal ends.

The bill did not include beer or other alcoholic beverages.