The Best Natural Wine Bars in New York

The most serious natural wine bar in New York, full stop. Racines maintains the New York outpost of a respected Paris wine bar, which means the list skews heavily French and biodynamic, the glassware is serious, and the team knows every producer on the list personally. This is not the place to come and learn what natural wine is; it's the place to come when you already know and want to drink something from a producer you've been tracking for three years. The food — a short seasonal menu — is designed to serve the wine, not the other way around.

Order: Ask for a recommendation from the Loire or Jura — the team's areas of particular expertise

Wildair is the bar that made natural wine feel cool rather than earnest in New York, and it has never lost that quality. The room is small, loud, and perpetually full of people who clearly come here often. The wine list is organised by mood rather than region — not as gimmicky as it sounds — and the food programme (small plates designed for sharing and arguing over) is one of the best in the Lower East Side. The bar seating is first come first served; the restaurant tables require booking. Show up at 5:30pm if you want the bar without waiting.

Order: A glass of whatever orange wine the team is excited about this week — they'll always have one

Part wine shop, part bar, entirely good. Parcelle operates a retail store alongside a standing bar where you can open any bottle from the shop at a flat corkage fee — which makes it one of the better value propositions in the city for drinking serious natural wine. The selection is curated with real intelligence: you'll find small-production Beaujolais alongside Georgian amber wines alongside biodynamic Californians. The staff are knowledgeable without being gatekeepers, which puts Parcelle firmly in the category of bars you can bring a nervous newcomer to.

Order: Pick a bottle from the shop that scares you slightly — the staff will talk you through it

The natural wine bar that Brooklyn's food world goes to on their nights off. June is technically a restaurant, but the bar operates as a genuine destination for drinking — small, candlelit, with a wine list that the owners update obsessively and a crowd of regulars who feel proprietary about it in the best way. The list is predominantly natural and biodynamic, with an emphasis on small producers from less fashionable regions — Corsica, the Canary Islands, Slovenia — that the team has visited and can talk about in useful specifics.

Order: A glass of skin-contact white from a region you can't immediately place on a map

The most democratic bar on this list: a basement space in Bushwick that charges fair prices for genuinely interesting natural wines and stays open until 3am on weekends. Cervantes attracts a younger crowd than the Manhattan spots, which has the useful effect of making the atmosphere feel alive rather than reverent. The list is smaller and more curated than Wildair — about 40 labels — but every bottle has been chosen with clear editorial intent. The tinned fish selection, served with good bread, is a feature of the food menu that works better than you'd expect.

Order: A bottle of low-intervention pét-nat from the rotating list — the value here is exceptional

A French-owned bar that treats Williamsburg as if it were the 11th arrondissement, which mostly works. Les Enfants Terribles has one of the best Burgundy and Champagne selections of any natural wine bar in Brooklyn, alongside a broader list of French biodynamics. The room is crowded and warm, the food is proper French bistro, and the owners have genuine relationships with producers — several of the bottles on the list are exclusive to this bar. The wine on tap — a rotating selection of certified biodynamic pours — is the best value option.

Order: The biodynamic wine on tap — ask which producer is currently pouring

The Upper West Side's best natural wine bar is more interested in educating its regulars than impressing them. Vino Veritas hosts monthly producer tastings and runs a regular newsletter that profiles the farmers behind the bottles on the list. The wine selection is accessible without being simple — you'll find natural Rieslings, unfiltered Chenin Blancs, and a rotating section of "wild ferment" wines that change with each new allocation. The neighbourhood crowd is loyal and the turnover at the bar is low, which means the staff actually get to know you.

Order: Whatever is featured on this month's producer tasting — call ahead to check what's open

A natural wine bar in Park Slope that has figured out how to be genuinely relaxed — no attitude, fair prices, a strong by-the-glass list that rotates weekly. The Natural Selection attracts a neighbourhood crowd of parents, artists, and people who work in food, which keeps the conversation at the bar interesting and the energy low-key. The wine list is focused on the Americas and Europe, with a particular strength in low-intervention American producers from the Finger Lakes, Sonoma, and the Pacific Northwest. Dogs are welcome until 8pm.

Order: A Finger Lakes skin-contact white or a biodynamic Willamette Valley Pinot Noir by the glass