When Bianca Bosker started her journey into the world of wine she was an amateur drinker and a journalist focusing on tech.

Her foray into wine upended her world and led to her book Cork Dork: A Wine-Fueled Adventure Among the Obsessive Sommeliers, Big Bottle Hunters, and Rogue Scientists Who Taught Me to Live for Taste (Penguin Books, 2017).

Ultimately she learned taste matters and people can improve their tasting abilities.

What I loved about this book is it feels so authentic. It’s an inside look from an outsider’s perspective, who in some ways becomes an insider. That will make sense after you read or listen to the book.

I listened to Cork Dork, which was all the more entertaining because Bosker reads it. She isn’t afraid to make fun of herself, peel back the truths and misconceptions about the world of sommeliers, and the wine industry as a whole.

The book seemed long; it’s 352 pages. I needed to listen in small doses at times. Sometimes it’s a bit scientific. That part, too, was interesting. I was learning so much along the way.

The rabbit holes she went down to find the answers she wanted were impressive.

I vaguely remember someone at a winery a few years ago recommending this book. He was talking about how what really matters is what the individual thinks of a wine, not what the tasting notes say, or a reviewer, or judge, or even the winemaker.

This is in some ways what Bosker says as well. But she also proves people can elevate their tasting abilities. She also talks about how a wine can evoke a memory, and that who you drink it with and where you are at the time play a role in the flavor as much as the actual contents in the glass. That’s why sometimes when you have that same bottle another time it doesn’t carry the same weight as it did the first go-round.

Anyone who has an interest in wine is bound to enjoy this book. Others who are curious about taste-olfactory senses will, too.