Cork Dork

A Wine-Fuelled Journey into the Art of Sommeliers and the Science of Taste

Bianca Bosker

• Publisher: Allen & Unwin
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN:
  9781760632205
• eBook ISBN:
  9781760639167
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Culinary Arts

The Independent 's 2017 Book of the Year and a 2020 London Eater recommended read for lockdown 'If Malcolm Gladwell were to write a book about wine, the results wouldn't linger much more pleasurably on the palate than this accessible, adventurous, amusing and informative book by Bianca Bosker' - The Times Professional journalist and amateur drinker Bianca Bosker didn't know much about wine - until she discovered the world of elite sommeliers who dedicate their lives to the pursuit of flavour. Fascinated by their fervour and seemingly superhuman sensory powers, she set out to uncover what drove their obsession, and whether she, too, could become a 'cork dork.' With boundless curiosity, humour and a healthy dose of scepticism, Bosker takes the reader inside underground tasting groups, exclusive New York City restaurants, mass-market wine factories and even a neuroscientist's fMRI machine as she attempts to answer the most nagging question of all: what's the big deal about wine? Funny, counterintuitive and compulsively readable, Cork Dork does for drinking what Kitchen Confidential did for dining out, ensuring you'll never reach blindly for the second cheapest bottle on the menu again.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction: The Blind Tasting
• Chapter One: The Rat
• Chapter Two: The Secret Society
• Chapter Three: The Showdown
• Chapter Four: The Brains
• Chapter Five: The Magic Kingdom
• Chapter Six: The Orgy
• Chapter Seven: The Quality Control
• Chapter Eight: The Ten Commandments
• Chapter Nine: The Performance
• Chapter Ten: The Trial
• Chapter Eleven: The Floor
• Epilogue: The Blindest Tasting
• Acknowledgments
• Selected Bibliography
• Index