Cork Dork

"A marvelous journey through the mad, manic, seductive subculture of wine and wine lovers." — Susan Orlean, author of The Orchid Thief

"The Kitchen Confidential of wine: Read this book, and you ll never be intimidated by wine or wine snobs again."  — Madeline Puckette, co-author of Wine Folly

Like many of us, amateur drinker and professional 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, identify the grape a bottle was made from, in what year, and where it was produced within acres. Where she tasted wine, these master sommeliers 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.

Thus begins a year and a half long adventure that takes the reader inside elite tasting groups, exclusive New York City restaurants, a California mass market wine "factory," and even a neuroscientist's fMRI machine as Bosker attempts to answer the most nagging question of all: what s the big deal about wine? Counterintuitive, compulsively readable, and hilarious, Cork Dork illuminates how tasting better can help us live better and will change the way you drink wine forever.

"An 18-month immersion in the study of wine, teaching us not just about what to look for in the glass, but how to experience the world in a new way…Always perceptive, curious, and entertaining, the author describes her experiences with precision and a wry sense of humor…Readers will certainly come away from the book knowing more about wine and likely eager to explore it further, but even those less inclined to imbibe will be intrigued." Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)

"The Kitchen Confidential of wine: Read this book, and you’ll never be intimidated by wine — or wine snobs — again." Madeline Puckette, co-author of Wine Folly

"Cork Dork is a brilliant feat of screwball participatory journalism and Bianca Bosker is a gonzo nerd prodigy. In a little more than a year she mastered an arcane field of knowledge and she’s written a hilarious, thoughtful and erudite book that may be the ultimate answer to the perennial question of whether or not wine connoisseurship is a scam." Jay McInerney, author of The Juice

"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 Gulp

"In this smart and sharply observed book, Bianca Bosker takes us on a marvelous journey through the mad, manic, seductive subculture of wine and wine lovers. It’s also a deeply felt story of her own experience, told with great heart and wit." Susan Orlean, author of The Orchid Thief

Bianca Bosker is an award-winning journalist who has written about food, wine, architecture, and technology for The New Yorker online, The Atlantic, T: The New York Times Style Magazine, Food & Wine, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, and The New Republic. The former executive tech editor of The Huffington Post, she is the author of the critically acclaimed book Original Copies: Architectural Mimicry in Contemporary China (University of Hawaii Press, 2013). She lives in New York City.