Tasting notes: gleeful, ebullient, learned, self-deprecating
Suggested pairings: Sweetbitter by Stephanie Danler; Top Chef, The Great British Bake Off

Bianca Bosker, previously a technology journalist, gave herself a year and a half to learn everything she could about wine in hopes of passing the Court of Master Sommeliers exam. Along the way she worked in a variety of New York City restaurants, joined blind tasting clubs, attended an olfactory conference, and blagged a TopSomm guest judge spot. 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.

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.

Some favorite lines:

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.’”

“Smell, curator and keeper of memory, allowed me to be a time traveler, and more than ever before I had control over my destination: I could pick a scent or a wine, then whisk myself to a time, feeling, or place.”

From her guru, Morgan Harris: “Wine for me is just a touch point to a wider world view. That I am not important. That I am a sack of water and organs that’s going to be here on the Earth for eighty years if I’m lucky. And so I should figure out some way to make that count.”

The unassuming criteria of another of her mentors, Terroir wine bar chain co-creator Paul Grieco: “The wine must be yummy. One sip leads to a second sip. One glass leads to a second glass. One bottle leads to a second bottle.”

Bianca Bosker is my new hero. She quit her tech journalism job to learn about wine. Not just learn about it, but to learn as much as any one human can about wine in a year and a half. She made the leap from writing at a computer all day to being a cellar rat, stocking the wine cellar of a high end New York City restaurant. She went from doing computer research all day to going to wine tastings in the morning. She made sacrifices: coffee, mouthwash, scented detergent. All to become a certified sommelier. 

Cork Dork is the story of Bosker's journey from wine nerd to expert. Through months of relentless reading and memorization, she found out that she could learn the subtleties of the grapes used throughout Europe, to be able to pinpoint a wine's home to within a few miles based only a tasting. She had expert somms teach her how to spit out the wine. She went to one of the top professionals in the perfume industry to learn how to differentiate scents. She wrangled her way into being a guest judge at the TopSomm competition in order to see the top sommeliers in the country do battle. 

It is crazy what sommeliers put themselves through in order to chase the flavors of wine. Some of the advice Bosker got while she was learning: take yoga to breathe better, to better smell the wine. Make yourself flashcards (they often has thousands of them, and one somm would use them to test herself on her ride to work each day. She rode a bike to work). Read books. Put maps of France up in your shower. Eat dirt. (Seriously, one somm told her to taste the soil wherever she went. I have to admit that one was my favorite). And while she may not have tried all of these, Bosker certainly went beyond what is rational in her quest to be a top wine expert. 

Written with an honest and playful style, and justifiably compared to Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential or anything by Mary Roach, Cork Dork is a truly lovely collection of obsessions and stories, of humor and pathos, as Bianca Bosker takes us through all the flaming hoops it takes to become a sommelier. The characters she meets (and they truly are characters, who come to life under her scrutiny and inquiry) and the places she discovers take us all on the wine adventure of a lifetime; and drinkers or not, all of us who take the journey with her will find our lives take on a richness and depth because of the tidbits we pick up along the way. 



Galleys for Cork Dork were provided by the publisher through NetGalley.com.

CORK DORK

I am not and have never been a big drinker.

Some people assume that I teetotal for religious reasons, or maybe on principle; they would be wrong about the latter and only partly right about the former. Although I was brought up very conservatively, I’m actually fine with the consumption of alcohol in moderation. I do, however, subscribe to the saying in vino veritas, and on that score am wary about the many ways that alcohol can bring out the worst in people (I sincerely doubt it has ever brought out the best in them).

But really, my disinclination towards alcohol is a matter of personal preference. Fact is, I have never enjoyed drinking. In the same manner that some people find it pleasurable, enjoy it, and maybe even romanticize the sensations that accompany the consumption of alcohol, I’ve never really developed a taste for it. That’s really all there is to it right there.

Which is not to say I’ve never wondered about what some people find so alluring about drinking; and not drinking per se, but more of how and why people develop a taste for fine wine and spirits. That’s what drew me to Bianca Bosker’s Cork Dork: A Wine Fueled Adventure Among the Obsessive Sommeliers, Big Bottle Hunters, and Rogue Scientists Who Taught Me to Live for Taste, which to me seemed like a perfect window into what aficionados adore about wine.

It was. Indeed, in its own unconventional way Cork Dork will leave readers with a better appreciation for wine and the way that it can enhance the dining experience, all because Bosker has a good story to tell, and one that she happens to tell very well.

Cork Dork is the sommelier equivalent of Moonwalking with Einstein. In the latter, Joshua Foer recounts his journey to becoming the 2006 USA World Memory Champion, along the way sharing interesting anecdotes and trivia about neuroscience and the science of memory. Similarly, in Cork Dork Bosker narrates how a budding fascination with wine transformed into the yearlong endeavor of passing the Court of Master Sommelier’s Certified Sommelier Exam, and thereby becoming a rated sommelier. This autobiographical turn gives Bosker an opening to discuss many of the finer points of winemaking, tasting, and hospitality in general by focusing on the level of service expected and demanded of sommeliers.

The end result is a book about wine that’s unlike traditional books about wine, which is a revelation. It’s not easy to write about sensations like taste (and smell, which Bosker emphatically argues is inextricably intertwined with one’s experience of wine), yet Bosker is able to hold her own with an enthralling narrative that is often insightful, occasionally irreverent, and appropriately surprising where need be. In that sense, it helps that she was formerly a technology writer, because her writing about wine and sommeliers has the same punch as the best technology writing out there.

The least that readers can expect to get out of Cork Dork is to become a little bit more conversant about wine–to learn its jargon, traditions, and geography (that is, the world’s wine producing regions). On the other hand, those already familiar with such things will nonetheless be drawn into Bosker’s personal journey to become a card-carrying cork dork herself by venturing to become a certified sommelier. Hers is an outsider’s perspective that anyone can appreciate, and her candor comes across when she observes, for instance, that the “science” of wine tasting is imperfect at best and that many sommeliers are really full of themselves (to put it kindly). Yet as she learns the nuances of particular wines, manages to identify and distinguish between varieties while blind tasting (it can be done!), and ultimately comes to empathize with the drive that becoming a serious sommelier requires, one can’t help but cheer on her personal growth–and wish the same for themselves.

It turns out I was right about Cork Dork, as I came away fascinated by the light Bosker had shone on the niche world of sommeliers. While I can’t promise that her adventurous spirit has rubbed off on me so much that I would give up my teetotaling ways cold turkey, one thing is for sure: having read Cork Dork, I will never look at a bottle of wine the same way again and am all the better for it.

As Alyssa mentions above when she was reading this book she would constantly be telling me tidbits about what she was reading. Every single time should tell me something I would find it fascinating and it finally got to a point where I decided I was done hearing the information secondhand and wanted to just read it for myself. So I wished for the book on Netgalley and was ecstatic when they granted my wish!

If this gets repetitive I apologize. First of all it can not be stated enough just how much interesting information there is about wine and probably more accurately wine culture in this book. As someone with an interest in wine but not really the budget to fully dive in it was interesting learning about it and almost vicariously experiencing being a wine expert big wig. However, maybe what I most appreciated about the book was Bosker's ability to look at all sides of the culture. She openly admits to loving some of the more opulent experiences she had and at times seeing how sommeliers see there job as a vocation, yet she also has moments of returning to what seems to be the initial starting point of this project that the culture is bullshit. However, the reasons why she thinks this greatly evolve over time and give an interesting glimpse into the culture that I have not seen since most portrayals either only sing its virtues from the rooftops or think the whole thing is a sham without adding any nuance.

I think maybe the most intriguing element of this book though is less about the wine and more about the people she meets along the way. Almost every single person featured in this book is fascinating and wonderfully brought to life through Bosker's writing. In reading you feel like you get to know these characters and their incredibly multifaceted reasons for getting involved in various parts of the wine industry. It's what I think would make this book super compelling even to someone who is not super into wine.

I would absolutely recommend this book. I plan to buy it myself when it comes out to have a copy in the house to show to family and friends. I love nonfiction and this is one of the best nonfiction books I have read in a while. Do yourself a favor and read it!

For some time I’ve been reading articles written by Bianca Bosker about certain aspects of the wine world. While positing topics that have no end of potential (such as “Is there a better way to talk about wine?“) the articles always left me wanting more than what they’d scratched at.

This is why I was quite interested to read Ms. Bosker’s new book, “Cork Dork” to see if the freedom of a longer format would allow her to develop more of a personal voice and offer something greater than previous articles had allowed. Coming out next month, the book digs in to the world of the sommelier (which is what “cork dork” references.) This, is not a topic I’d take on willingly as while it’s now viewed as sexy for people outside the trade, it’s only in terms of their being impressed but not wanting to know what it takes.

Ms. Bosker repeatedly mentions that she started out a complete novice in wine. I’m not sure why this is so necessary, but I suppose it’s to ingrain upon the reader that what is learned in sommelier trainer can potentially be done by anyone. As the text continues on her journey there are some engaging sections scattered about, but those are usually where the subject at hand is an interesting one such as, Morgan Harris. The pace picks up when Ms. Bosker is in his company because he’s an engaging individual.

The main problem is that despite trying otherwise, it ends up being a book for other “cork dorks”, that is the people keenly interested in the topic and thus it gets quite geeky. In such cases Ms. Bosker tries to pare it down and make it entertaining for the greater public, ie “dumbing it down”. In wine this is tricky and is why we have sommeliers in the first place as you either end up making it more confusing or then make it wrong. It’s not the least bit ironic that Madeline Puckette of Wine Folly gave a hearty endorsement of this book given that she too tries to make wine accessible, but in doing so, creates horribly error-filled, skin deep text.

After reading Cork Dork I was quite surprised to learn that Ms. Bosker has written other books, as the overall structure to this one is sloppy, irregular, and could have benefited from much firmer hand in editing. It drifts from various accounts that range from working as a “cellar rat”, to then tasting with people far beyond her level, to then delving in to the science of smell and taste. This can most definitely work if it binds to a theme that is in and of itself fascinating, but as I’ve always said, studying to be a sommelier is something that you do for yourself; trying to prove its allure to anyone else is simply irrelevant.

While reading Cork Dork I was reminded of a book I quite enjoyed with with a similar approach as this one, which is called, “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” by Rebecca Skloot and is truly fascinating. Not only is the topic exceedingly interesting as it deals with science, race, and ethics in the US, but also Ms. Skloot did a wonderful job tying everything together and making some seriously thick science understandable. Reading Cork Dork against that one, I could clearly see there’s a lot to appreciate in the craft of doing this.

In glancing over her website, I’ve seen that perhaps I sit alone in my opinion as others, exceedingly better-known than myself have slathered grandiose reviews on the book. But in reading such reviews I had to wonder if the authors actually read the book, as what many of them wrote could be applied to most any book. And I need to add that all the reviews on her website are by other authors, which in my opinion is always suspect given that most are often called upon to review one another and few ever want to rock the boat. Instead, I refer to this review on Amazon that gave it 3/5 stars:

"…This would have been perfect as a long-from essay. Plus, she effortlessly leverages wine connections that the average reader can’t identify with. Her access makes the story feel deliberate, privileged and inaccessible. We go inside her wine world, but we’re not connected to it. Which made for some dry reading.

Bosker is a terrific writer and an earnest student of wine. This might be a fun read for hard-core oenophiles, but it’s a hard pull for the average wine enthusiast or general interest reader."

I know from experience how much time and energy go into writing a book, so I do admire the effort and commend her for not only writing the book but also having it published by such an important publishing house like Penguin. But I definitely agree with the review above that a heavily trimmed-down and properly edited version of the book could serve as a tight, long-form essay.

And this comes back to my original statement that, as a more advanced oenophile than the average reader, I found the book lacking as well and so it doesn’t really work for anyone. It’s going to be especially off-putting to anyone in the wine industry as it portrays us all as a bunch of drunks given how often Ms. Bosker makes reference to being drunk in the middle of the day. This is simply not the case as anyone who is, is either a rank amateur or they have a serious alcohol problem. Both exist and people who are serious don’t take them as such.

There is also the feeling that based upon how many times Ms. Bosker mentions needling people until they relent to let her into places such as advanced tastings or working a stage at a high-end restaurant in NYC, she must not have told anyone that this was going to be in a book. I seriously can’t see Marae, a two Michelin Star Manhattan restaurant saying to some aspiring, amateur sommelier, “Oh, you’re going to write about our wine billing methods and customer profiling which is essentially illegal under discrimination laws? Please do come in.” If it’s the case she wasn’t transparent about this at some point, while some people might find it to be brilliant, I find it to be dishonest and potentially unethical, like sneaking into someone’s home to plant a wiretap as it’s not like she was a sommelier who then decided to write a book about the experiences.

I bring this up as Ms. Puckette calls it, “The Kitchen Confidential of wine” which really is a stretch as that book was written by Anthony Bourdain who had worked in kitchens as a professional chef for years and then wrote a book about it. Ms. Bosker’s dip in to the world of the sommelier has granted her a large amount of production facts and wine profiles, but has come up short on all other fronts.

Great introduction through the eyes of a novice wine enthusiast about the complex and intriguing world of wine tasting. A recommended read for anyone who has ever had a passing interest in wine.

Very enlightening. Details a former reporter's extensive efforts at achieving the sommelier certification. Provides unique insight into the wine industry.

*I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review through NetGalley.*

Overall Rating: 5 out of 5

Andrew and I started learning more about wine when we first read <em>The Judgment of Paris</em> by George M. Taber. Once we started earning money from having jobs (rather than being rather poor full-time students), wine became a favorite drink of ours to start off and end our weekends. We were fascinated with the history of winemaking and the culture that surrounds it. We've lately taken our drinking a step further and joined a wine club where we very rarely drink the same bottle twice -- we love trying new wines, seeing what they pair with, and comparing them to other wines we've had. So, when I saw Cork Dork available on Netgalley, it seemed like the perfect fit.

Bosker's experience as a journalist shines through her ability to bring the reader exactly where she is and fully delve into the context of the situation. She not only covers the basics of what it means to be a sommelier, but explains at length the science behind tasting and smelling, ways to improve those senses, the aspects of serving wine in fine-dining restaurants, the sommelier exams, the tastings, etc. Everything is explained in detail and I both learned a lot and was thoroughly entertained. She goes through these experiences while also describing the people she meets along the way, their lifestyle and interests, and how they came to be a part of the community they're involved in.

My favorite part of this book, however, is how much I learned about wine. Bosker offers great tips for ordering wine at restaurants (ASK THE SOMMELIER!), and also shares what she learns about improving your taste and smell capabilities. I admit, I'm also incredibly interested in the subject itself, so I'm a bit biased, but I totally bought in to a lot of the things she offered as advice. I told my husband that the book explains that we're not often explicitly taught how to identify smells the way we can identify color and sights, so Bosker recommends smelling different things over and over again so that you develop a memory for it -- and now we both are working on improving our sense of smell by smelling spices and foods and trying to imprint them on our memories. And you know what -- being more conscious of smells and tastes truly does heighten the experience of drinking a beverage or eating a food. Who knew?

Despite the fact that this book holds A LOT of information about wine and dining, it's still a fun, entertaining read. It's part memoir, part informational book, interweaving it all together so that it flows as a cohesive story. Bosker makes it super easy to get into -- she starts with the basics and builds her way up. It's great that she started as a person who knew almost nothing about this subject before starting, because she's able to reach out to people who know basically nothing themselves. I admit, I didn't know much about wine before this besides the fact that it's grown in different places and can be paired with meals and is sometimes fruity or earthy. Now, I feel like I have such a better handle on the idea of wine and food pairings, and how wine is made and served, etc. And I was able to laugh and enjoy a good story while learning more about it. It's really the perfect book.

If you're at all interested in wine or even just the history and community surrounding wine, I would highly recommend this book. It's one of my favorite non-fictions I've read in a while, and I will most definitely buying copies of this to gift it to friends and family. So worth it!