Review: Cork Dork by Bianca Bosker

Title: Cork Dork
Author: Bianca Bosker 
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin Books
Publish Date: March 28, 2017
Source: Publisher

What's the Story?:

From Goodreads.com: "Like many of us, tech reporter Bianca Bosker saw wine as a way to unwind at the end of a long day, or a nice thing to have with dinner and that was about it. 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. Where she tasted wine, these people detected not only complex flavor profiles, but entire histories and geographies. 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."

My Two Cents:

In "Cork Dork," author Bianca dives into the world of sommeliers. Now, I like wine. I know what color I prefer (red). I also know what kinds I prefer (malbecs or pinot noirs are clutch in my book). I know that I enjoy wine but that is about it. This book opened my eyes to a brand new world. Much of this book looks at the world of sommeliers. A little bit of obsessiveness, a little bit of science. A lot of one of my favorite subjects!

In this book the author explores the intriguing world of sommeliers who are on the hunt to fine-tune their palette in order to become the best that they can be. I had no idea how rigorous sommelier training is! Some of their methods are unorthodox. I had to laugh about some of the people in the book deciding to like things lick rocks in order to fine-tune their taste a little bit.

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.

In some ways this book reminded me of some books like Mary Roach is where the author takes a deep dive into something that you've never really thought about all that much before. This book was thoroughly entertaining and I recommend it to my fellow winos!