A drinker's guide to natural wine in Brooklyn: the Williamsburg icons, the Fort Greene and Boerum Hill shops, and where to find low-intervention bottles on nearly every block.
Brooklyn might be the single densest natural wine neighborhood in America. From Williamsburg to Fort Greene, Boerum Hill, and Bed-Stuy, it's wall-to-wall low-intervention bars and shops. Expect [[glou glou]] reds, skin-contact [[orange wine]], and [[pét-nat]] on nearly every block.
Here's where to drink it and where to buy it across the borough.
Natural wine bars
Where to drink a glass and let someone else pick.
The Michelin-recognized bar, co-owned by LCD Soundsystem's James Murphy, that set the standard for Brooklyn natural wine. A deep list, fish-forward small plates, and famously tough reservations.
Order: a chilled gamay with the small plates.
An airy natural wine bar opening onto Bedford Avenue, with skin-contact whites, chillable reds, and a rotating bottle of the week.
Order: the bottle of the week.
A Paris-inspired bar pairing low-intervention wine with a raw bar, charcuterie, and small plates like leeks vinaigrette.
Order: a low-intervention glass with the raw bar.
Books and bottles share the shelves at this literary spot, with a primarily French, low-intervention list.
Order: a French natural with a book.
Unpretentious and inviting, deep on natural and unfiltered bottles, and quite possibly the only NYC wine bar with a pool table and a big backyard.
Order: an unfiltered red in the backyard.
Bottle shops
Where to carry something home, and get a real recommendation doing it.
A natural and organic specialist with unique small-producer bottles, right in the heart of Williamsburg.
Ask for: a small-producer natural you won't find in Manhattan.
Carefully curated natural wine, personal and tightly edited.
Ask for: a curated natural, staff's pick.
Celebrated for its extensive natural, organic, and biodynamic selection.
Ask for: a biodynamic bottle for dinner.
A neighborhood shop specializing in organic, biodynamic, and natural wine.
Ask for: a natural bottle under $30.
Not only natural wine
Primal started with low-intervention bottles, but the shop runs deeper than that. Alongside the glou glou and pét-nat, we carry classic, appellation-driven wine from the regions that wrote the rules, made by small growers who happen to farm with care.
And for the cellar, there is a serious high-end bench: red Burgundy, Alsace Riesling, Barolo and Barbaresco, Brunello di Montalcino, grower Champagne, and other benchmark bottles worth laying down. Whether you want something easy for a Tuesday or a wine to keep for a decade, it is the same shop.
Common questions
The stuff people actually ask before their first bottle.
What actually counts as natural wine?
Natural wine is farmed organically or biodynamically and made with minimal intervention: native-yeast fermentation, nothing added or stripped out, and little to no added sulfites. It's a spectrum, not a certification. Our natural wine glossary breaks down the terms, from glou glou to pét-nat to amphora.
Which Brooklyn neighborhood is best for natural wine?
Williamsburg is the epicenter (Four Horsemen, With Others, Uva), but Fort Greene (Thirst), Boerum Hill (Anaïs), Carroll Gardens (Smith & Vine), and Bed-Stuy (Manny's) are all deep in it.
What's the difference between natural and classic wine?
Classic wine leans on established regional tradition and technique; natural wine strips winemaking back to organically or biodynamically farmed fruit and minimal cellar intervention. Plenty of great bottles sit in both camps. Primal carries classic and high-end wine alongside the low-intervention range.
Is Brooklyn better than Manhattan for natural wine?
It's arguably the densest natural wine borough in the country. Williamsburg alone rivals most whole cities, and the scene runs across nearly every Brooklyn neighborhood.
