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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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… Bianca Bosker catapults herself blindly into the wine world, not caring who she takes out en route. She intrudes into the lives of sommeliers, wine makers, restaurateurs and scientists to get her story. She has done an admirable job in distilling - or rather milking - so much of their knowledge. Personal feelings about sommeliers aside, I found this a very enjoyable and interesting book. I learned many things, including:

Cork news and sport - Echolive The Echo: Cork news and sport - Echolive

She seeks to answer a couple of big questions. Is the wine industry just full of BS? How hard could it be to become an accomplished sommelier? Speaking as someone who barely knows a good Bordeaux from a bottle of Boone’s Farm, I was charmed and entertained by this book.” 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.” Despite its failure to demystify wine, it’s impossible to read Cork Dork without learning a whole lot about wine, and wanting to learn much, much more; it is therefore a huge accomplishment. Even people who criticized the book admitted to enjoying it. Asimov, too, found it entertaining, and appreciated the strength of the writing. But he also found it to be symptomatic of a larger, very conventional, very American point of view. “You need a diploma,” was how he summed it up. Or, perhaps, an fMRI scan showing you’ve officially turned your brain into that of a connoisseur. I enjoyed this book at the start, and then slowly started to despise it until I was about 60% done with it. At that point there were fantastic sections that dig into what truly defines “good wine” and how variable the definition can be.One sip leads to a second sip,” he says. “One glass leads to a second glass. One bottle leads to a second bottle.” After high school, she went to Princeton, where she majored in East Asian Studies. There were a lot of 9 a.m. Chinese classes and a lot of flashcards with Chinese characters, foreshadowing the wine journey to be undertaken a decade later. The whole notion of connoisseurship is a by-product of geographic locations that don’t make wine in the first place, Asimov argued. And when you focus on the way connoisseurs like sommeliers taste wine, what you end up doing is alienating regular consumers, because you convey that that’s the way you’re supposed to do it, and the way they are currently doing it is wrong. “That creates this sense of tension and anxiety that a lot of people I think experience,” explained Asimov. 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.

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

I loved this book. It’s not just about wine. It’s about learning how to listen to your senses, to more deeply experience and appreciate the world around you, and everyone could use another glass of that.”– Mary Roach, author of GulpOn our journey, the author takes us on a tour through the wine world while discussing various topics including the study by aspiring sommeliers, and a discussion of our sense of taste and smell as it relates to the study of the fine wine world. Throughout the year we will be hosting some fantastic evenings, such as wine tastings, cheese pairings and many more. Please keep an eye on our social media for upcoming events. 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.

CORK DORK — Bianca Bosker CORK DORK — Bianca Bosker

The educational elements - be it around sensation and perception, affective neuroscience, or behavioral economics - were comprehensible for psychology grad students and civilian readers alike. 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.” I loved this book. It’s not just about wine. It’s about learning how to listen to your senses, to more deeply experience and appreciate the world around you, and everyone could use another glass of that.”

Level 1 wine study flashcards are ideal for CMS Intro and WSET Level 2 and WSET Level 3 exams. Level 2 is ideal for CMS Certified Sommelier and WSET Level 3 and beyond. Change levels any time. With no common sense we promptly opened a bottle of Chardonnay. I'm pleased to say we only had a small glass and saved the rest. :-) The Chablis was the better of the two wines and we would certainly buy it again. Up-to-date study material for all major Old & New World wine regions: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Chile, France, Bosker breaks open the world of your favorite beverage...[bringing]readers on her year-plus adventure of learning about everything from production to consumption." –Bustle, "The 20 Best Nonfiction Books Coming In March 2017"