Wine bars worth knowing in New York City – chosen by the experts

In a city with countless places to sip wine, the best wine bars in New York City stand out for their intimate atmosphere, generous hosts and thoughtful bottle lists. Brooklyn’s natural wine bars spill into leafy, redbrick backyards, while Lower East Side lairs balance European character with local energy.

We tapped a handful of experts to highlight their favourite places for uncorking in the city, alongside a few of our own recommendations. Continue with our guide to New York’s most atmospheric restaurants.

Wine bars in Brooklyn

Entre Nous

Clinton Hill

Best for: French character on a Brooklyn corner
Address: 39 Clifton Place, Brooklyn, NY 11238
Price: $$$

This French-inspired wine bar pairs low-intervention wines with a menu of raw-bar offerings, charcuterie and small plates such as leeks vinaigrette and wagyu beef tartare. Ellis Srubas-Giammanco, the wine director at Penny restaurant, says it embodies everything he wants from a wine bar: a carefully curated list, simple food and the freedom to drop in without a reservation. “Entre Nous is a lovely and genuine addition to New York’s wine bar scene, strongly evoking its counterparts in Europe where the separation between wine bar and restaurant is more clearly defined,” Srubas-Giammanco says. “To me it truly encapsulates everything a great wine bar should be.”

Frog Wine Bar

Bedford–Stuyvesant

Best for: Natural wine with dive bar energy
Address: 358 Marcus Garvey Boulevard Brooklyn, NY 11221
Price: $$$

According to Andrea Grujic, a bartender at revered Sip & Guzzle, Frog Wine Bar is “unpretentious and inviting, with a great selection of natural, unfiltered wines.” The hip Brooklyn location is possibly the only wine bar in New York with a pool table and has a spacious backyard for lounging. A slate of cool events have included buzzy food pop-ups and low-key concerts. It is the type of venue where one glass of gamay can easily turn into two bottles of Austrian rosé, before venturing next door to sibling venue Tadpole for live music.

Lise & Vito

Greenpoint

Best for: Natural wine and cocktails in a retro setting
Address: 126A Nassau Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11222
Price: $$$

From the pink-speckled terrazzo bar to chartreuse banquettes and lava lamps, Lise & Vito looks every inch the Brooklyn natural wine bar. Dispelling any notion of wine jargon, its descriptions take a playful approach, comparing a Virginian co-ferment to banana-flavoured Runtz candies and an Italian pét-nat to Tootsie Roll. The irreverent tasting notes belie a seriously considered selection, led by Greenpoint local and esteemed sommelier Brittany Myrick.

Sauced

Williamsburg

Best for: Laidback space for personalised pours
Address: 331 Bedford Avenue, Brooklyn NY 11211
Price: $$$

Sauced in Williamsburg is a no-frills neighbourhood wine bar, where the focus is firmly on quality rather than ceremony. It doesn’t take reservations and seating is limited to a handful of stools and tables. In the backyard, guests perch on benches and sprawl out on throw cushions scattered around the patio. There is no formal menu; instead, trust the team to pour something to your taste. “Choosing wine here is a conversation and a perfect opportunity to try something new and delicious without taking wine, or yourself, too seriously,” says Jhonel Faelnar, the former beverage director at Na:eun Hospitality, the group behind two-Michelin-starred Atomix. An additional location in the East Village swaps a chill backyard for a DJ booth and party vibes.

With Others

Williamsburg

Best for: Natural wine on Williamsburg’s hip thoroughfare
Address: 340 Bedford Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11249
Price: $$$

Eddy Buckingham, the cofounder and operating partner of Tuxedo Hospitality, recommends Brooklyn’s With Others natural wine bar for its airy interiors that open onto Bedford Avenue, Williamsburg’s prime thoroughfare.“My favourite seat in all of Williamsburg is Table 1. It’s at the front of the venue by a bay window, which opens up to the street. It’s best to get there before sunset, pull a couple of corks and watch the world go by. Invariably a friend will walk past and join us.” The menu lists skin contact, chilled red, and other low-intervention wines from around the world, plus rotating bottles of the week. Evocative tasting notes are printed on the menu, such as a red that leans dark cherry and tobacco or currant and plum. Adding to its commitment to education, With Others hosts weekly Sunday School sessions that cover topics from how to read a wine list to a deep dive into the Loire Valley.

Liar Liar

Gowanus

Best for: Local hangout for steak and vinyl
Address: 285 Nevins Street, Brooklyn, NY 11217
Price: $$$

A proverbial living room for residents of Gowanus, Brooklyn, Liar Liar is owned by four local friends. An exposed-brick interior houses a convivial bar and intimate booths, with vinyl spinning throughout the evening. The extensive wine list covers Rhône to the nearby Finger Lakes, alongside a handful of cocktails. If you come hungry, you’re in luck: the peppery steak au poivre is a local favourite.

Rude Mouth

Williamsburg

Best for: A lively backyard for outdoor imbibing
Address: 359 Metropolitan Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11211

Ava Trilling, a former wine director at Nightmoves and cellar manager at The Four Horsemen, brings her expertise to Rude Mouth, a neighbourhood wine bar in Williamsburg. The by-the-glass selection changes regularly, with a focus on low-intervention producers and lesser-known bottles. The biggest draw is the leafy backyard, which is sprawling by New York standards, with a mix of individual and communal tables.

Anaïs

Boerum Hill

Best for: Literary browsing over a glass of wine
Address: 196 Bergen Street, Brooklyn, NY 11217
Price: $$$

Books and bottles share the shelves at Boerum Hill’s Anaïs. Named after the French-American writer Anaïs Nin, titles published during the author’s lifetime that touch themes including sex and femininity line up alongside low-intervention, primarily French wines. The space is a cafe by day and wine bar by night, a versatility that Dorothy Munholland, co-founder of Null Wines, celebrates. “As the founder of a non-alcoholic wine, I love that the concept is all day,” she says. “The team also has alcohol-free wines on rotation.” Snag a seat by the floor-to-ceiling windows and look out at the neighborhood’s tree-lined brownstones.

Wine bars in Manhattan

The Ten Bells

Lower East Side

Best for: Low-lit bottles and oysters
Address: 247 Broome Street, New York, NY 10002
Price: $$$

With its dark wood, old brick and chalkboard menus, Ten Bells has the feel of a neighbourhood bar that has been here forever. A buzzy Happy Hour runs from 5pm to 7pm, when visitors can score oysters for 1 USD and 8 USD glasses of the house pours. The selection is stellar but Sommelier Kristin Ma also rates the ambience: “I have many fond memories of sharing a bottle with a friend in the dark lighting and laughter of the room. It’s a real vibe.”

There is a second location in Bushwick, with a similar approach and ambience.

Parcelle

Lower East Side

Best for: Gio Ponti furniture and rare bottles to take home
Address: 135 Division Street, New York, NY 10002
Price: $$$

Locals will recognise the name Parcelle from its popular bottle shop. Owners Grant Reynolds and Josh Abramson have since expanded into wine bars, with a bustling outpost on the Lower East Side decked out in Gio Ponti furniture. More than 500 hard-to-find bottles line the shelves, ranging from rare trophy wines with four-figure price tags to more accessible bottles under 60 USD, all available to drink on site or take home.

La Compagnie Vins Surnaturels

SoHo

Best for: Encyclopaedic wine list and Parisian character
Address: 249 Centre Street New York, NY 10013
Price: $$$

Sommelier Kristin Ma notes that she’s probably not alone in calling La Compagnie her favourite wine bar in NYC. With more than 1,000 bottles from around the world and 30 wines available by the glass, it’s easy to see why it has remained an industry favourite for more than a decade. “It has a deep list of really classic but also natural producers,” says Ma. “It represents nearly every region of the world and does it well.” The moody, dimly lit space sits solidly at the center of downtown Manhattan where Nolita and SoHo converge, but you’ll feel like you’re in Le Marais in Paris.

Bibliotheque

SoHo

Best for: Imbibing in a book store
Address: 54 Mercer Street, New York, NY 10013
Price: $$$

At Bibliotheque, the best pairing for wine is a book. This SoHo bookshop and wine bar divides its list into 14 chapters, each with a different theme. The ‘Sagas and Epics’ chapter is dedicated to large-format bottles, while ‘Architecture’ focuses on structured, full-body wines. The selection includes rare bottles available by the three- or six-ounce pour and dozens of collectors’ wines with quadruple-digit price tags. There’s also a chapter dedicated to bottles under 80 USD, carefully curated by the team.

Aldo Sohm Wine Bar

Midtown

Best for: Refined, old-world pours from an acclaimed sommelier
Address: 151 W 51st Street, New York, NY 10019
Price: $$$

Aldo Sohm Wine Bar brings the expertise of its namesake sommelier to a relaxed, living-room-like setting in Midtown. On weeknights, the bar marks 9pm with a magnum pour, often served by Sohm himself. More than 40 wines are available by the glass, alongside 200-plus bottles from around the world. Low-slung communal sofas sit beneath soaring ceilings, while colourful artwork adds to the lounge-like feel. Pete Pjetrovic, co-owner of Rocco’s Steakhouse, sums it up: “In a city constantly seeking the next big thing, Aldo Sohm Wine Bar remains a bastion of refined pleasure.”

Stars

East Village

Best for: Art-filled space for great price wine
Address: 139 E 12th Street, New York, NY 10003
Price: $$

With just 12 seats and an Old World-focused cellar that’s 1,000 bottles deep, Stars packs serious ambition into its jewel box space in the East Village. The team behind nearby restaurants Claud and Penny, opened the bar with a mission to make great wine more accessible. So, despite the pedigree and art-filled interior, glasses start at 12 USD, with 88 bottles priced at 88 USD or less, with small bites to pair with each glass.