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.

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER AND A NEW YORK TIMES CRITICS' PICK "Thrilling . . . [told] with gonzo elan . . . When the sommelier and blogger Madeline Puckette writes that this book is the Kitchen Confidential of the wine world, she's not wrong, though Bill Buford's Heat is probably a shade closer." -Jennifer Senior, The New York Times 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." With boundless curiosity, humor, and a healthy dose of skepticism, Bosker takes the reader inside underground tasting groups, exclusive New York City restaurants, California 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? What she learns will change the way you drink wine-and, perhaps, the way you live-forever. "Think: Eat, Pray, Love meets Somm." -theSkimm "As informative as it is, well, intoxicating." -Fortune