Cork Dork: A Wine-Fueled Adventure Among the Obsessive Sommeliers, Big Bottle Hunters, and Rogue Scientists Who Taught Me to Live for the Taste (Thorndike Press Large Print Lifestyles)

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Although there are scientific studies that indicate that so-called wine experts cannot tell the difference between wines in blind taste tests, there are also studies that indicate that wine expertise is not a sham (p. 108). Do you like wine? I like wine. Do like a well researched book with an engaging writing style, entertaining stories plus a hearty dose of clear and informative information? I found this book to be all of those things....but again, I like wine so I was interested in this journey. I'm glad that Bosker undertook her journey because no way I would sign up for that kind of dedication, but she had be both laughing and taking notes that will add to my wine confidence and some that I'll use in any tasting and further learning about food and drink. I like and firmly agree with the quote: "Every person has the capacity to find and savor the soul that lives in wine--and in other sensory experiences, if you know how to look for it." Cork Dork gives plenty of ways to look for it. Bosker also mentions that the term “unicorn wine” is a rare, small-production gem that sommeliers consider status symbols.

My husband and I are hardly wine connoisseurs. 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. Several years ago we watched the documentary, Somm, which documented the rigors of becoming a master sommelier (a "cork dork"). Which, by the way, is tough, very tough. So I was thrilled to receive a copy of this book and get an inside look into the world of wine. For readers of Anthony Bourdain, Susan Orlean, and Mary Roach, a surprising, entertaining and hilarious journey through the world of wine. I used to be SUPER INTO wine, even though I couldn't afford super nice bottles, but these days I'm more mildly interested than wholly enthused. As much as I liked Cork Dork, it didn't necessarily make me want to drink more wine. But that's OK, because Bosker doesn't really have a goal of making the reader drink more wine. What she really wants is for all of us to notice the things we're experiencing, be they tastes or smells, sights or sounds. She strives in this book to become a certified sommelier, but ultimately, her message is that we don't need to be certified in anything to have a full and fascinating life. All we really need to do is learn to pay attention to the world happening around us. I'll raise a glass to that. She is obsessed and tenacious. She somehow wrangles her way into sommelier competitions when she has never served before. She gains access to a scientific conference on smell (and the impact on the brain) in Switzerland. She talks researchers in South Korea into taking an MRI of her brain while sending her sips of wine via a tube to see what areas of her brain light up. The woman who INVENTED the WINE AROMA WHEEL invites Bosker to her KITCHEN to teach her how to find “asparagus” when tasting.The educational elements - be it around sensation and perception, affective neuroscience, or behavioral economics - were comprehensible for psychology grad students and civilian readers alike. Summary: Light, funny, and engaging mix of personal experience, history and science in the style of Mary Roach. Professional journalist and amateur drinker Bianca Bosker didn't know much about wine—until she discovered an alternate universe where taste reigns supreme, a world of elite sommeliers who dedicate their lives to the pursuit of flavor. 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.” On how to open a bottle of sparkling wine: “The cork should be twisted and released into a napkin with a pfft sound no louder than—and these are the technical terms I was given—a ‘nun’s fart,’ or ‘Queen Elizabeth passing gas.’”

Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany, by Bill Buford Bosker is a journalist who learns of a sommelier exam and drops everything to learn more about wine from production to service and better understand and appreciate it. That sounds so dry. I’m not doing her justice. Here’s how she describes it, “it sounded like the least fun anyone’s ever had with alcohol. But I love a competition, the less athletic and more gluttonous the better, so when I got home that night, I did some digging to see what this sommelier face-off was all about.” In this smart and sharply observed book, Bianca Bosker takes us on a marvelous journey through the mad, manic, seductive subculture of wine and wine lovers. It’s also a deeply felt story of her own experience, told with great heart and wit.”– Susan Orlean, author of The Orchid Thief The “tongue map”, which they forced me to learn in elementary school, has been debunked (p. 83, 88).

Three people are sitting by the table. They were chosen like the best sommeliers in country. On this ... [+] competition are presented best wines from wineries in region. They are holding glasses with red wine and looking at it to give mark for color. There are three more glasses per person in front of them with white and rose wine. Beside wine glasses, on the table are some boards with meat for them. This professionals are dressed in suits. Getty

The resulting book is a delightful blend of science, memoir and encounters with people who are deadly serious about wine. Taste and especially smell are underdeveloped human senses, but it is possible to train them: at the end of the book Bosker gets in an fMRI machine and proves that – like a London taxi driver with route-finding – there’s evidence of her brain having formed advanced connections in the areas involved in taste. Everyday wine drinkers may be particularly interested in the discussion of price versus quality, and the book made me think about how the passing pleasures of the flesh are still worth celebrating. Then Bosker takes all this access and opportunity and distills it into knowledge that she passes on to the reader with wit, sarcasm, and glorious humility. That being said, the Bosker we meet in the book is the type of person who takes up the whole sidewalk with her friends, who inserts herself into conversations she has no business being in, who loudly makes the party about her, who incorrectly corrects people when they're just trying to tell an anecdote. She's the girl at the party I always hate, but have to invite, because she's friends with BlahBlah and we'll never hear the end of it if she's slighted. Also, she'll probably show up even if she's not invited and make more if a scene than if an invitation had been extended. Pairings: 2015 Pedernales Texas Albarino & 2014 Silverado Vineyards Petit Verdot. I selected both of these wines because they are unlikely gems in the wine world, just like Bianca Bosker’s Cork Dork. Personal feelings about sommeliers aside, I found this a very enjoyable and interesting book. I learned many things, including:

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The author also goes into the science of wine-making and what makes different wines unique. She looks at why some wines are so much more expensive than others and whether or not the prices really worth it, something I have always wondered about myself. I really appreciated the way that the author did a deep dive into the subject.

Cork Dork was pitched to me as a text about the rigorous "athletic" training individuals undergo to establish sommelier expertise. I imagined a mostly palatable chronicle of a journalist's journey (not unlike Supersize Me) into the bowels of a subcultural community. Throughout the book, Bosker is not only drinking wine and having a good time, but veers off into exploring many wine-related areas. The science of smell, and of taste. The type of people who are avid wine collectors. The new controversial practice of creating whatever type of wine you want in a factory, including being able to replicate some very expensive wines. The terminology of sommeliers and wine merchants (necrophiliacs, hand sells, trigger wines, and cougar juice, for a few). And what to watch for when dealing with a sommelier.I am a journalist by training and a type-A neurotic by birth, so I started my research the only way I knew how: I read everything I could get my hands on, carpet-bombed sommeliers' in-boxes, and showed up at places uninvited, just to see who I would meet."