Cork Dork: A Wine-Fuelled Journey into the Art of Sommeliers and the Science of Taste

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I met Bosker at Terroir Tribeca, the site of a chapter in the book where she gets a job as a sommelier. It has a past and it expresses the personality and character of a people and a region, especially in the Old World, Asimov explained. A riveting exploration of the world of elite sommeliers who dedicate their lives to the pursuit of flavour from professional journalist and amateur drinker Bianca Bosker. Whether you can look serenely upon the doings of silly rich and their symbiots may predict the amount of enjoyment you will get out of this book.

Funny, counter intuitive, and compulsively readable, Cork Dork illuminates not only the complex web of wine production and consumption, but how tasting better can change our brains and help us live better. While the little birds perform an task analogous to your semi-annual (if you can afford it) trip to the dental hygienist, sommeliers often have the similarly useful function of separating the silly rich from their ill-gotten gains and funnelling it back into the economy of real things, where it can bounce around from pocket to pocket of people who actually need it (starting with restaurant staff) until it is inevitably re-captured by the undeserving.There are some simple ways to cleverly detect a wine’s characteristics, and some simple terms to describe them. The unassuming criteria of another of her mentors, Terroir wine bar chain co-creator Paul Grieco: “The wine must be yummy. But capturing the life of a sommelier and capturing the beauty and joy of wine are not the same thing.

You have a point, and Bosker reveals the entire story (although I won't, so not to spoil the surprises). Professional journalist and amateur drinker Bianca Bosker didn't know much about wine - until she discovered the world of elite sommeliers who dedicate their lives to the pursuit of flavour. In this book, readers will follow Bianca Bosker, a journalist taking a year and a half journey to learn and live the life of wine.Like a parlor trick, it keeps the drinker in the dark, ultimately widening the gap between drinker and sommelier. Astounded by their fanatical dedication and seemingly superhuman sensory powers, Bosker abandoned her screen-centric life and set out to discover what drove their obsession, and whether she, too, could become a cork dork. But the refrain of "I was a big-wig journalist and gave it up to try this wine thing out because how hard can it be even when people dedicate their lives to it and I just want to drink" is infuriating. The one aspect of the book that occasionally turned me off is the fact that one of the main recurring characters, a sommelier and friend of the author’s named Morgan, hews very closely to that tired old trope, the brilliant eccentric man who can also be extremely annoying. For one person I spoke to, there’s actually a tension between the goal Bosker entered her project with — understanding what’s the big deal about wine — and the one she ultimately pursued — transforming herself into a sommelier.

This is one of the most informative books that I have read this year, as well as one of the best written. Reporter Bianca Bosker takes the reader along on her quixotic quest to become a certified sommelier, a journey you will enjoy even if you aren't particularly interested in wine.Everywhere she goes—whether it's into a busy kitchen or a vineyard, or into her own head—Bianca Bosker takes us with her. One of the things that I found concerning about that reaction is that it speaks to this mindset of wine connoisseurs telling people what to taste,” she explained.

Thus begins a year and a half long adventure that takes the reader inside elite tasting groups, exclusive New York City restaurants, a California winery that manipulates the flavor of its bottles with ingredients like Mega Purple, and even a neuroscientist's fMRI machine as Bosker attempts to answer the most nagging question of all: what's the big deal about wine?Whether you are an inspiring wine dork, just wanting to learn the basics, or a veteran looking for a rare find, there are no wrong answers when tasting wine. Was this backlash against her nothing more than a bunch of wine snobs disconcerted at having their snobbery exposed? An interesting look at those with an unquenchable thirst for those unique bottles of vinicultural perfection. The Cork Dork has received many fond comparisons since we opened from a candle lit Parisian cellar bar to your Nan’s old kitchen! Not only did sommeliers want to drink delicious, handsome-looking wine, made with care and mindfulness, but they also (generally) wanted to wear attractive clothes, eat good and healthy food, provide memo