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

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At the time, my interest in formally studying wine was still just a budding thought, but I heeded her recommendation and bought the book the day it was released. We drink wine, enjoy wine, and attend wine tastings when we get the chance, but liking and enjoying wine is far different than knowing wine. Bianca reflects on her mentor’s definition of what makes a good wine: that one sip leads to another sip. 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. And if we use these elaborate terms that have no real connection to reality, people will assume either they are broken or the wine is.

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. I think a lot of people, understandably, categorize wine and wine tasting as pretentious, elitist nonsense – and despite my own genuine fascination with wine, I honestly wondered how much of it was genuine myself. Bianca Bosker could have written a really excellent book about all of this, had she not insisted on inserting personal bullshit that makes her come off as a pretentious Basic Bitch who muscles her way into places she shouldn't be. Sommeliers are like those little birds that pick food particles off the teeth of crocodiles, the Long-Suffering Wife recently said during a discussion of this book. Preserving Your Passion: A Glimpse into Luxurious Wine SanctuariesFor the discerning oenophile with a penchant for collecting rare and exquisite wines, ensuring the proper storage of these liquid treasures is.

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. Her articles have appeared in the Atlantic, the New York Times, and the New Yorker, among other publications. I do think people who say they care about wine should be able to distinguish between processed and relatively unprocessed wines.

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. Cork Dork is a brilliant feat of screwball participatory journalism and Bianca Bosker is a gonzo nerd prodigy. Ever wondered what people were talking about when discussing the "legs" of a wine, the acidity, the tannins, or the alcohol content?Like a parlor trick, it keeps the drinker in the dark, ultimately widening the gap between drinker and sommelier. Despite the populism of the op-ed, Cork Dork’s focus on the most elite sommeliers and their rituals might just make wine more intimidating than ever. Until she stumbled on an alternate universe where taste reigned supreme, a world in which people could, after a single sip of wine, identify the grape it was made from, in what year, and where it was produced down to the exact location, within acres. I'd love to know how many friends she lost after this book came out, because she sounds like the worst.