Bianca Bosker, a Portland native (and Catlin Gabel grad), was executive tech editor for the Huffington Post before she turned to vino. When she happened upon the elusive world of elite wine tasting—the master sommeliers who can tell grape, vintage, and region with a single sip—she slipped down the rabbit hole, away from the world of video games and Siri.

In her new book, Cork Dork, Bosker sets out to answer her burning question: “What’s the big deal about wine?” She works her way up from lowly “cellar rat” to sommelier, diving into exclusive New York City restaurants, mass-market wine “factories,” and even a neuroscientist’s fMRI machine. Portland Monthly’s own Karen Brooks will interview Bosker at Powell’s City of Books on Friday, March 31 at 7:30 p.m.