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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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.” 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.

Cork Dork: A Wine-Fueled Adventure Among the Obsessive

Speaking as someone who barely knows a good Bordeaux from a bottle of Boone's Farm, I was charmed and entertained by this book. Everywhere she goes—whether it's into a busy kitchen or a vineyard, or into her own head—Bianca Bosker takes us with her.” –John Jeremiah Sullivan, author of Pulphead The Devil in the Kitchen: Sex, Pain, Madness and the Making of a Great Chef, by Marco Pierre White and James SteenThe educational elements - be it around sensation and perception, affective neuroscience, or behavioral economics - were comprehensible for psychology grad students and civilian readers alike. Cork Dork Wine Study uses proven techniques from cognitive science which adapt to your memory and wine knowledge. Spaced repetition and interval-based active recall helps you maximize wine knowledge retention. Difficult flashcards appear more often, easy flashcards appear less often. You remember more with less effort. Wine study has never been easier!

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

Her description was a lot like Cork Dork – a gorgeous, deliciously rendered little journey for my mind to follow along with that, when all is said and done, remained entirely Bosker’s. 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. 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 In this delightfully written and keenly observed book, Bianca Bosker helps us become connoisseurs not only of wine but also of people whose passions would more aptly be described as obsessions.” –Walter Isaacson, author of The Innovators 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.

You’ll never feel lost in front of a wine list again." –Cynthia Graber and Nicola Twilley of " Gastropod ," via The Atlantic The brouhaha finally culminated in a series of tweets by Eric Asimov, the New York Times’s wine critic. “Big fan of @bbosker, but not buying the premise or the conclusion,” he tweeted. “I do think people who say they care about wine should be able to distinguish between processed and relatively unprocessed wines.”

Cork Dork - Wine Study App Cork Dork - Wine Study App

Cork Dork is an epic work of gonzo journalism, like if Joan Didion and Hunter S. Thompson had a baby who wanted to work in a restaurant. It’s a riveting read, full of science and service and gossip. From endless blind tastings to sommelier competitions to scientists’ labs to the front end of New York’s fine-dining restaurants, Bosker takes us from the armpit of the wine industry to the science behind it. It’s a dizzying tale, full of set pieces so vividly rendered you’ll feel like you’re being jostled by a wait staff trying to get around you, like you’re being dressed down by Paul Grieco, owner of Terroir Tribeca, livid that Bosker dared to contradict him in front of a guest. my pinch-me-I'm-dreaming face post- podcasting with wild wine legends @jaymcinerney + paul grieco for @prince_street_ 🔥Listen now to hear my questionable quote about an "orgasm in a bottle." Link in bio! thx @howiekahn (and @michaelhalsband for 📸) ReadingBianca Bosker islikesitting down witha brilliant, curious friend for an after-work drink, and suddenlyfindingit’s midnight and the table is littered with empty bottles. Between her hilarious exploits and thoughtful meditations on wine and life, you’ll wanttostay forjust one more.” Beaten, Seared, and Sauced: On Becoming a Chef at the Culinary Institute of America, by Jonathan DixonPersonal feelings about sommeliers aside, I found this a very enjoyable and interesting book. I learned many things, including: Rather than mastering blind tasting and the arduous rituals of sommelier service, Asimov believes that teaching people to enjoy wine is about teaching them the role of wine. “It’s just a beverage,” he says. “It’s meant to give us all pleasure, and that is often sufficient, but then there’s so much more to it, so many more levels to it,” he explained. There’s the history, the people, the personalities. Good wine is an expression of culture, and it comes from a place. It has a past and it expresses the personality and character of a people and a region, especially in the Old World, Asimov explained. “These are the things that I find fascinating about wine and that are often lost in an effort to focus wholly on this collection of aromas and flavors that comes from a glass in a vacuum.” 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.” But capturing the life of a sommelier and capturing the beauty and joy of wine are not the same thing. For one person I spoke to, there’s actually a tension between the goal Bosker entered her project with — understanding what’s the big deal about wine — and the one she ultimately pursued — transforming herself into a sommelier. That person is Eric Asimov.