Book Club- Cork Dork
Our last book club read was Cork Dork by Bianca Bosker. It was an interesting read but we had mixed feelings about it. It’s part memoir/part food writing about the wine industry and a journalist’s attempt at becoming a Master Sommelier.
I enjoyed learning more about the inner workings of the wine and restaurant industry. I feel like I learned more about how to taste wine and how to make my next experience ordering wine (whenever that might be, ugh!) better.
There were things I wished the author had mentioned in the book more, though. As a white women and a journalist she had privilege in the restaurant industry that someone else would not. That meant she was offered a lot of opportunities that someone else wouldn’t so I feel like it wasn’t a necessarily honest look at how a person could get into the sommelier community. I also feel like she didn’t really acknowledge enough just how male and white-dominated the field is. She spoke a little bit about how it’s mostly a male field, but didn’t really dig into it the way I would have liked.
Several of the book club ladies felt the way I did. They also had a hard time getting through the book because the author befriended some fairly arrogant people. Their attitudes could be a little hard to get past.
Still going strong, even though it’s virtual!
I enjoyed this read but I also don’t feel like this book would really draw people into the wine world that weren’t already interested. I think many people already find wine intimidating and I don’t think this book really helped with that. I would recommend this book to people that already enjoy wine, but not to everyone.
I was obviously going to be drinking wine during book club since this book is all about it! I miss hosting the book club ladies so I thought it would be fun to send them a bottle of the same wine I was having so it would be like we were drinking it together. One of the ladies wasn’t going to be drinking with us, so I sent her a wine scented candle so she could join in the fun. I wanted a varietal of wine that was mentioned in the book and also wanted to buy from a local winery. Maryhill winery is right down the hill from us and has Viognier so that’s the one I chose. It was the 2018 Viognier and at $19 felt reasonably priced. It was less sweet than some other Viogniers I’ve had, but was still light and a wine I would buy again.
It had low tannins and a 13.9% alcohol by volume. We all thought it smelled of apple or pear. I also feel like this would be nice versatile wine for the summer. It would pair well with fish or chicken, but also drinks well on its own.
I had the wine shipped direct from the winery. It’s also available for purchase as Total Wine & More. If you’re in Washington, Maryhill now has its tasting rooms open and is also offering curbside pickup. Needless to say, there’s no shortage of options to get your hands on this wine! 
Our next book is Queenie by Canidce Carty-Williams. As always, you can see all the books we’ve read on my Book Club Pinterest board.