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.