Where best to spend National Wine Day in the US.

It wasn’t so long ago that the wine lists of New York still slouched toward Italy, or France, or places closer to home (but still far away), such as Napa and Sonoma Valleys. It wasn’t just that sommeliers favoured the Old World, but that they favoured older more conservative styles, too, often with hefty price tags. These days, however, wine bars and wine lists have become less expensive and vastly more interesting. On the eve of National Wine Day in the US, we rounded up five of the most exciting places to drink wine in New York at the moment.

Opened in 2015, this 37-seat restaurant and wine bar on the southern edge of Williamsburg was a pioneer of diversifying wine lists. One of the owners is Mr James Murphy, the bearded patriarch of LCD Soundsystem and a serious oenophile.  Like a playlist full of B-sides and rarities, the 350-strong list is full of natural wines by tiny producers with big personalities, many of whom visit for collaborative dinners with chef Mr Nick Curtola.

295 Grand Street, Brooklyn

fourhorsemenbk.com

Once upon a time, champagne was viewed as both elitist and fusty. However, at this pinkly hued succulent-filled West Village bar, owner Ms Ariel Arce is demystifying the sparkling wine. Partially subsidized by Tokyo Record Bar, her izakaya-and-cocktail bar in the basement, Ms Arce is on a mission to popularize champagne and offers tremendous deals by the bottle, half-bottle and glass. Focusing on grower champagne (champagne made by the same people who grow the grapes), Ms Arce’s list is informal, informative and irresistible. From half-bottles of demi-sec from A Margaine for $38 to bottles of under $50 of blended non-vintage to the high-end “unicorn wines,” Air’s takes the pretension away from champagne and leaves you to drink it without breaking the bank.

127 Macdougal Street, Manhattan

airschampagneparlor.com

You might suspect that the spin-off of Le Bernardin, one of New York’s most elegant fine dining institutions, would be a little conservative. But Mr Aldo Sohm, the Austrian-born sommelier of both Le B, as it’s called, and his own wine bar next door, says the only rule governing his 200-strong bottle list (and list of 40 wines by the glass) is that there no rules. It’s not chaotic, mind. The stems of the Zalto glasses are slender and the service is polished. But the list motors through the whites and reds of Italy, France and Germany out to California, over to India and back again while Mr Sohm pours personal favourites nightly at 9.00pm. It’s the only reason to stay in Midtown after dark.

151 West 51st Street, Manhattan

aldosohmwinebar.com

Before he opened Estela (famously visited by Mr Barack Obama) and, last year, Flora Bar, Mr Thomas Carter worked as a “beverage director” an hour north of the city at Blue Hill Stone Barns, currently the 11th best restaurant in the world. At Flora Bar, which occupies the basement and patio of the Met Breuer, Carter’s bona fides are on display. The bar offers a near-endless scroll of carefully selected list that combines Old World growers with New World freedom. Fitting for a restaurant and bar in the basement of a modern art museum, you’ll find arch-traditionalists cheek-by-jowl with revolutionary producers such as Ms Alice and Mr Olivier de Moor and Ms Julien Altaber.

945 Madison Avenue, Manhattan

florabarnyc.com

What’s that you say? There’s another ambitious pizza restaurant in Bushwick with a world-class wine list? Ten years after Roberta’s opened its doors, Ops, a fertility and earth goddess in Roman mythology, is carrying on that tradition with expertly made pies (try the Cicero, made with “many onions” and preserved tomatoes) and a tightly curated wine list with unexpected selections such as Dinos to Diamonds by Utah-based winemaker Ms Ruth Lewandowski and Scribe’s skin-fermented chardonnay. All wines are available by the bottle and the glass though, alas, OPS pizzas are not as yet available by the slice.

346 Himrod Street, Brooklyn

opsbk.com