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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Disclaimer: Many thanks to Penguin Random House for the opportunity to read and review. Please assured that my opinions are honest. Cork Dorkis remarkably entertaining. Bosker is a talented writer, a thorough reporter and is unfailingly funny.” Super fun and fascinating memoir. It was nice to refresh my wine knowledge but I also learned a ton. Pro: history of wines and sense of smells, steps to become a sommelier, types of wines, blind tasting, secret meetings, informative, humor, cover, step-by-step instructions, very well written,

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

Journalists are a breed of people I struggle with. Their role is undeniably important in unearthing bodies and stories, but half the time you find out they buried them it the first place, just to get a scoop. Morgan helps get Bosker a place in a tasting group filled with the highest profile, and most ambitious sommeliers in Manhattan. You’ll never feel lost in front of a wine list again." –Cynthia Graber and Nicola Twilley of " Gastropod ," via The Atlantic A fascinating journey into the obsessive, punishing and occasionally arcane world of new York's sommelier scene. Bianca dives headfirst into the fine dining restaurant environment to discover why sommeliers put themselves through such ridiculously long working and learning hours to sell wines to customers who regard them as little more than glorified servants. On the way, she encounters personalities to whom OCD would be a compliment, discovers how smell & taste are under-rated and undervalued senses, and encounters service rituals that would make the Freemasons look prosaic.Cork Dork was fabulous! 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. Along the way you'll meet the sort of obsessive types who are always interesting/amusing regardless of what they're obsessing over, go to suspense-filled sommelier competitions and bacchanalian, wine-soaked feasts, tag along with restaurant employees (something I always find fascinating), and learn all about the science of taste. But what really makes this book come alive is Bosker's writing, lively and funny and blessedly masterful—something by no means guaranteed in a young tech reporter, and such a welcome relief. If you liked Sweetbitter, consider reading Cork Dork, its nerdier nonfiction counterpart.

Cork Dork by Bianca Bosker: 9780143128090

Bianca Bosker’s Cork Dork is a high-octane account of her year in the New York wine scene, from slaving as a cellar rat to training as a sommelier and partying in the city’s inner sanctums… 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. The Devil in the Kitchen: Sex, Pain, Madness and the Making of a Great Chef, by Marco Pierre White and James Steen 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.Ms. Bosker writes about this tribe, their cares, their concerns, their everyday lives, and their all-consuming passion in a sympathetic and deeply probing manner as she, herself, seeks to gain admittance to their ranks. One comes away with a deeper understanding of oenophiles and what motivates them. If Bianca Bosker can become any sort of sommelier by faking it til she makes it, then maybe the wine world is full of BS. That’s possibly unfair. She has unloaded plenty of useful information from others in this. For the most part it’s informative. Some chapters are good. It’s a worthwhile read in between the mountains of fluff and exaggeration. Mike has been called a dork throughout his life but wears “The Cork Dork” name with a badge of honor. I'm sure that there are nearly as many of these as there are obscure subcultures to write about, but a best-selling example of this format is Moonwalking with Einstein, about the subculture of memory arts. An informative and riveting read that doesn’t take itself too seriously—a much needed dose of reality the wine world could benefit from.”

‘Cork Dork’ or Wine Snob: Who Is Bianca Bosker’s Book

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.’” What I related to the most is how much our memories and experiences also shape the wine. Sleeping over at the Planeta Vineyards in Sicily made us love their wines even more.

Cork Dork follows the adventures of Bianca Bosker from tech journalist to cellar rat in the elite world of wine. Bosker takes us on a journey that reveals what it really takes to become a super-taster like the elite sommeliers around the world. I loved the combination of anecdotal evidence, idiosyncratic methodologies, and scientific research to better understand how you can hone your senses like the professionals. It really is fascinating. An essential primer on food’s favourite companion, Bianca Bosker’s incredible book offers an investigation into taste, smell, and restaurant culture any foodie will appreciate.” In this delightfully written and keenly observed book, Bianca Bosker helps us becomeconnoisseursnot only of wine but also ofpeoplewhose passions would more aptly be described as obsessions.”

CORK DORK TOURS: All You Need to Know BEFORE - Tripadvisor CORK DORK TOURS: All You Need to Know BEFORE - Tripadvisor

An interesting look at those with an unquenchable thirst for those unique bottles of vinicultural perfection.” Cork Dorkis a brilliant feat of screwball participatory journalism and Bianca Bosker is a gonzo nerd prodigy.This hilarious, thoughtful and erudite book that may be the ultimate answer to the perennial question of whether or not wine connoisseurship is a scam.” –Jay McInerney, author of The Juice As you move through the book you are taking this journey with Bianca Bosker. Please remain seated..........The details and dedication of becoming a sommelier is daunting. It's their job to help select a wine appropriate for the meal and the guests' tastes all the while making money for the restaurant. The markup is very significant when it comes to wine and beverages. Bosker doesn’t agree. To the contrary, she brought up more pedestrian tasting notes as an example of what she called the B.S. of the wine industry. She recalled an episode in the book where she spent months blind tasting with a group of sommeliers who claimed to be able to smell chervil in their wine. But those same somms couldn’t identify the smell of chervil when Bosker put some in a cup. Then there’s “minerality,” a word Bosker once told a patron at Terroir Tribeca never to say ever again.

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 theirfervor and seemingly superhuman sensory powers, she set out to uncover what drove their obsession, and whether she, too, could become a “cork dork.” She explained that working as a sommelier in Terroir, she would sometimes get a table whose customers said, “Bring me anything, I can’t tell the difference.” And she’d bring them two or three wines and show them that yes, they could tell the difference. “I do see the book as my way of having the conversation that I would have as a sommelier maybe once, maybe twice a night, with tens or hundreds or, God willing, thousands of readers,” she said. Reads like a wine lover’s equivalent of Dante’s ‘The Divine Comedy’: There is paradise, but only after glimpses of purgatory and hell…A funny, thought-provoking and at times frightening look at the sublime tastes, enormous egos and curious rules of a profession that is both insanely rigorous and occasionally ridiculous.” Cork Dork is pitched as a ‘wine-fuelled adventure among the obsessive sommeliers, big bottle hunters, and rogue scientists who taught me to live for taste’. The author documents the 1 1/2 years she spent studying and learning to become a sommelier. She tells of the experiences she had honing her tasting skills while also dishing out some juicy bits about swanky NYC restaurants and the service industry. She also uncovers, often humorously, secrets to the elusive descriptions of the flavors in wine.