The challenge was not just about educating her palate, but also absorbing tons of trivia about wine growers and production methods and learning the accepted standards for sommelier service. Whenever I make the unwise decision of having a non-water beverage alongside a plate of pasta or stir-fry or whatever it is, I feel like I’m writing with a completely new and unfamiliar set of punctuation. With boundless curiousity, humor, and a healthy dose of skepticism, Bosker takes the reader inside underground tasting groups, exclusive New York City restaurants, California mass-market wine factories, and even a neuroscientist’s fMRI machine as she attempts to answer the most nagging question of all: What’s the big deal about wine? An 18-month immersion in the study of wine, teaching us not just about what to look for in the glass, but how to experience the world in a new way.

She felt that Cork Dork set her profession back, confirming people’s worst suspicions about sommeliers — that they’re snobs who are judging you and upselling you, whose primary goal is to get you to spend more money. Rather than talk about the chervil in a wine, or something as pedestrian as floral notes, Bosker subscribes to a more metaphoric take on tasting notes. Settle down with a glass of wine and savor this rollicking and lively tale of Bianca Bosker’s journey from rank amateur to ‘cork dork. Cork Dork" is a fascinating and humorous look into the world of wine and the people who are passionate about it.In fact, Bosker’s narrative voice is so colorful you might consider choosing the audio version so you can hear how well she mimics the smirky tone of some of the sommeliers she meets along the way. A year after she set out on her quest to discover wine, Bosker was gearing up for her Certified Sommelier exam. It's important to note that you don't have to know a lot about wine or be a wine fanatic to enjoy this book (I'm not--I enjoy wine, appreciate it, and know what I like and don't like and that's about it it), but being a foodie or food lover helps.

In this delightfully written and keenly observed book, Bianca Bosker helps us become connoisseurs not only of wine but also of people whose passions would more aptly be described as obsessions. 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.At first, I found the memory-arts subculture a little less off-putting than the wine subculture, mostly because the memory-arts subculture lacks the overlay of conspicuous consumption, fraud, snobbery, and greed that that are sadly present in the wine industry. 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. Additional humorous parts of Bosker’s new wine vocabulary include her discovering that “extended skin contact,” is not a pickup line. Astounded by their fervor and seemingly superhuman sensory powers, she set out to uncover what drove their obsession, and whether she, too, could become a “cork dork. Take, for example, two main characters who loom larger than all the others, neither of whom is in any way approachable.

And Rivest, like all the other candidates, had precisely 180 seconds to identify exactly what was in the glass. Both an entry-level guide to the ever-growing business of wine and a masterclass in the strange, immensely skilled fanatics who make it their life’s work. Read this book, and you’ll never be intimidated by wine – or wine snobs – again,” Puckette wrote in a blurb. It's not just a history lesson, it's an acknowledgment that we experience things too rushed, that we need to take a step back and savor.Author learns about the fiercely competitive high-stakes championship competitions of the subculture. A page-turning and fascinating memoir…Bosker’s mix of science, food writing, and memoir will be enjoyed by many. I met Bosker at Terroir Tribeca, the site of a chapter in the book where she gets a job as a sommelier.