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“Corkbuzz Wine Studio”

Occasion:	Cuisine:	Area:	Cost:	Rating:
Night Out	New American	Gramercy	Moderate	Good

There’s been much talk over the past five years about the artisan cocktail revolution, an important and seismic shift that marked the demise of ice chips and syrupy sweet Rose’s lime juice, and the birth of the Kold Draft cube, fresh-squeezed juice, and house-made bitters movement. In this well-documented ascension of our cocktail culture, pioneers like Julie Reiner, Sasha Petraske, Jim Meehan, and Eben Klemm, among many others, are all to thank. They’ve gotten lots of press, justifiably, in the name of their so-called spiritual work. But what of the wine rebels? The young avant garde sommeliers turning wine into an approachable, exciting, and learnable hobby? Seems to me they’ve gotten the short end of the stick. Maybe you’ve heard of Paul Grieco of Hearth and Aldo Sohm of Le Bernardin, two of my favorite terroir-shifting wine men. Thanks to wonderful writers like Eric Asimov and Frank Bruni of the Times, you probably have. But do you know Laura Maniec? If not, it’s time you should.

Maniec got her training at BR Guest under sommelier Greg Harrington (who’s now running his boutique wineries, Gramercy Cellars (where he is also the winemaker) and 21Grams in Walla Walla, WA), where she became a sommelier around the same time she reached drinking age. Maniec earned her master sommelier designation, the highest accreditation given to wine professionals, in 2009 after nearly eight years of intensive study. She is currently just one of 18 women to have the designation. Wine and Spirits Magazine named her “Best New Sommelier” the first year they started the award.

Now at 33 (we shared a birthday last week, June 8), she’s not only the sole female Master Sommelier in the state of New York, she’s the founder and a partner (with Frank Vafier) of Corkbuzz Wine Studio, an important and wonderful new addition to the drinking/ eating/education circuit.

The Studio is part wine bar, part wine school, part loft-styled dining room. It’s the kind of place where Mondays you can take a blind tasting, Tuesdays you might take a class in anything from Takeout Pairings to Techniques for Wine Enjoyment and Bubbles and Brunch, while Wednesday might have you planted at the beautiful ... [more, click below]

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Posted: June 15, 2012

Other restaurants in Gramercy :
+ Casa Mono/Bar Jamon   + Pure Food & Wine   + Parea   + Gramercy Tavern (Lunch)   + 15 East   + Tocqueville   + Irving Mill   + Bar Milano   + Irving Mill   + Maialino   + Asellina   + Corkbuzz Wine Studio   + Breads, by guest reviewer Tracy Weiss   

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