Cork Dork

This book sucked me into the world of wine sommeliers and soon had me practicing my spittoon skills in the shower.  I’m a wine historian who’d worked in restaurants, but I knew little about serving fine wine professionally. Bianca Bosker started with even less knowledge and embarked on a successful year-long crash course in wine.

She shadows sommeliers, learning their memory hacks and sharing their tasting tips, writing with empathy and humor. This book made me feel like I was lurking behind a sommelier on the floor of a Michelin-starred restaurant, except it was a lot funnier and had more… show more.

This book is my favourite wine book in recent times. In it, Bianca Bosker follows her quest to become a sommelier.

We follow her wine-tasting experiences, which include tasting with a high-flying circle of New York sommeliers from top restaurants and learning about wine while having sex. How is the last part possible? You’ll have to read it to find out!

You’ll also learn about wine, wine tasting, how your brain works, and the underworld of restaurants and sommeliers. This book is entertaining and well-written; I laughed out loud many times.

I’m reading, well listening, to this book right now! Bosker goes on a journey to become a Master Sommelier and writes a laugh-out-loud funny exposé of the wine world—from sommeliers to collectors, restauranteurs, producers, and even chemists—who dictate what we drink, why, how much we pay, and how we come to acquire certain tastes. I’d read it for the verbatim dialogue alone.