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 bar with a friend, snacking on chef Hayan Yi’s seasonally inspired, ingredient-driven menu with dishes like bone marrow with Bayley Hazen cheese and marmalade or Korean-style fried oysters with scallion pancake batter. Thursday you might be engaged in an advanced seminar on Starting a Collection, Friday you might be enjoying a regional tour of the wines of Argentina, and Saturday you might find yourself coming in for BYOB night, sharing your favorite bottles with a table of fellow wine lovers. Sundays are special here too. Once a month, they serve Sunday Supper—a family-style meal with wine pairings served around the community table. Seriously, if you’re ever at a loss as to what to do, rest assured there’s something great going on at Corkbuzz. It’s like a playground for big wine kids.

Maniec’s wine list offers around 35 wines by the glass and about 250 bottles from all over the world, with a focus on wines she is passionate about. “We try to pick some recognizable grape varietals and regions as well as some esoteric and undiscovered regions or up and coming producers,” she explained. “We curated the list so that we don't have 10 California Chardonnays, but rather four wines that represent the category at different price points and then we change the list often to keep our guests and ourselves constantly learning.”

A passion of Maniec’s is Champagne (she worked in the region for a harvest season), she has always wanted more people to drink Champagne, not just for special occasions, but also as an every day wine. To make this happen, she’s started a "Champagne Campaign." They mark all the wines down at 50% after 10pm until closing to help encourage diners to try wines they might not otherwise be able to afford. To give you an idea of what this might mean for you: A Krug for $148 and Ruinart Rose for $75 are just some of the values.

I spent a terrific evening exploring Maniec’s wine list while celebrating my birthday last week with Jamie and Susie. We were seated at the community table, located beyond the long buzzing bar, a convivial wine-drinking zone populated by those this side of young, and that side of middle aged, and groups of singles, marrieds, and just looking for fun. While the bar is quite an interactive spot, so is the communal table—an oversized slab of butcher block flanked by linen draped arm chairs so comfortable you might want to bring them home with you. (Shame they wouldn’t fit into my MZ Wallace.) It’s the kind of setup that encourages chatting and sharing of thoughts on everything from the crazy classes at Soul Cycle to what Don Draper was really thinking in the final shot of this season’s Mad Men. It’s also a place where all that wine gets to play with food.

Chef Hayan Yi trained at Daniel, and she has a rather whimsical approach to cooking. Take her “fish and chips” for example, which I imagine are a playful riff on Daniel’s signature potato-crusted sea bass. She takes plump rectangles of white fish, wraps them up in thinly sliced potatoes like tiny gift packages, and flash fries them till golden and crisp. They’re paired with potato salad and aioli and make an excellent amuse bouche while perusing the menu that includes snacks, salads, starters, shares, charcuterie, and cheese.

After finishing up a few glasses of excellent rose—the Ameztoi Rubentis ’11 – Getariako Txakolina from Spain ($15)— we went with a bottle of Dönnhoff Estate Riesling Trocken ’10 from Nahe, Germany ($50), the perfect choice for a hot summer night, and a good wife to a plate of shimmering Hamachi crudo dotted with cucumber and micro-radish ($16). To follow up on the crudo, we had the burrata, paired with snappy and plump spring peas and sheets of smoky crisped prosciutto dressed with a fresh pea puree ($13). It was the essence of spring. I loved the balance of sweetness from the peas and the ripe earthiness of the prosciutto played up against the creamy cool burrata.  A salad of shaved raw zucchini with fresh ricotta was fine, though much less interesting ($8). Those in the mood for a dish with a bit more personality should try the grilled calamari with chorizo and green olives ($15) or the lamb falafel with mango chutney and house-made pita ($12).

While almost everything we tried at Corkbuzz was quite good, a tagliatelle ($19) was clunky and overcooked, tossed with a rather lifeless combination of spinach, ramps, and crab meat. But the pork belly made believers of all of us. Crisped up so its skin cracked like a cage of glass under the weight of a fork, its meat a tangle of sweet and smoky, it was paired with a sweet lettuce salad dressed in buttermilk, and a preserved tomato jam. My friend Susie, who has never met a pork belly she has actually liked, was swooning. I was too.

You’re apt to swoon for the service at Corkbuzz as well as the pork belly. Maniec runs her restaurant like it’s her own home, visiting and making sure you feel welcome. She’ll also try to make sure you have an adventure or two with wine, not just a good meal. Her staff, including sommelier Morgan Harris, shares her passion. They want you to leave the Studio with a new wine on your mind, which is a fresh way to look at dinner—as an opportunity to meet a wine you’ve never known before. As for me, I know I’ll be looking for that Spanish Rose and the German Riesling at my local wine shop, Brooklyn Wine Exchange. And every time I drink them, I’ll remember my dinner with Jamie and Susie at Corkbuzz. And that’s the beauty of drinking wine. There is a sense of place that comes with every glass— a memory that gets buzzed into your brain. In this way, I suppose, the hangover is the best part.

Corkbuzz Wine Studio is located at 13 E. 13th Street, between University and Fifth Avenue, 646-873-6071.  

Andrea Strong