Natural wine is not difficult to find in Brooklyn, but that hasnโt always been the case. When June Wine Bar opened in January 2015, it was among Brooklynโs first wave of dedicated natural wine bars. The white-tiled, brick, and stark black exterior sits on a busy Cobble Hill street, and begins to fill right when they open for happy hour at 5:00 pm. And behind it all is Lena Mattson, June’s general manager and wine director, who in just four short years has built a spot thatโs become synonymous with natural wine in south Brooklyn.
June’s ownersโTom Kearney and Henry Richโset out conceptually to create a Brooklyn version of a Parisian natural wine bar with local and seasonal fare. Designed with the help of Home Studios, a long marble bar runs the length of the cozy space, where June staff talking intimately with guests while they pour or mix drinks. Against the opposite mirrored and mostly-brick wall are a dark and candle-lit mixture of two tops and a few larger booths separated by blue and grey stained glass. With one large booth cave and fairy-lit back garden, the energy is decidedly romantic throughout. Itโs one of the most photogenic spots in Brooklyn, as often evidenced by a monochrome Mattson on Juneโs Instagram feed.
Mattson is responsible for both the wine list and the concept for the food and beverage program. “I’m a very lucky wine director,” she says, in that June is able to sell whatever she puts on the list. This is due in large part to the eager, adventurous clientele: a mix of locals, further-flung regulars, and industry folks. Itโs also because Mattson works hard to design a list that โhits all points,โ she tells me. Sprinkled throughout are what she calls dad wines: big, heavy reds that taste largely how a consumer expects them to. It runs the gamut from less to extremely experimental, but allโaccording to Mattsonโdelicious.
Mattson is also constantly beefing up the skin contact section, which she declines to call โorange wineโ in an attempt to spur conversation about winemaking styles with customers. Customers often seek out June to request these wines and for those who donโt, itโs a great prompt for a customer to ask. Mattson, she says, is all about as much education as a customer wants.
The โshill-ah-blay redโ section of the expansive list is a tongue-in-cheek homage to a woman who approached Joe Swick at a wine event. According to the story he told Mattson, the woman asked him for a โshill-ah-blayโ wine. After a few minutes of confusion, he came to discover that she was exoticizing the word โchillable.โ โObviously weโre not encouraging putting an ice cube in your wine,โ Mattson says, but itโs her belief that dedicated natural wine bars in particular can and should break some of the rules of whatโs done, especially in pursuit of a better drinking experience.
And what counts as natural wine at June? What are the parameters a wine must meet to land on the list? Mattson is not a purist, but she consistently looks for a few things: farming on small hectares, no fining and filtering, no inoculated yeasts, nothing with sulfur above 40 parts per million. There are exceptions to each of these rules, but itโs rare. She also wants to know about the farmer and their practices. โWhether the conversation of natural wine comes up or not, it doesnโt really matter,” she tells me. “At the end of the day, Iโd love it just to be called โwineโ, and โwineโ is called โindustrialโ or โchemical wine.โโ
Like the wine list, the food menu is local, seasonal, and uses products by smaller farmers. This is an ethical choice, as well as a thematic one. Lead by head chef Evan Drury, the menu is designed and ingredients are sourced by asking similar questions to what Mattson asks of wine makers. It undergoes an overhaul with the changing seasons, but itโs rarely identical even week to week. The charcuterie board includes a broadbent ham, finocchiona, and wagyu bresaeola. Blink and youโll likely miss the pickled ramps atop stracciatella and dukkah, as their season is blissful but short-lived.
All spirits are sourced by assistant manager and bar director Ashley Williams, who has been with June from the onset. June has a spritz of the day, and on this particular rainy spring day it was Negroni-inspired. She also has a robust mocktail program and a rotating list of cocktails, including โA Date with Elvis,โ a concoction of bourbon, juniper, Byrrh, and Peychaud’s.
The by-the-glass wine list is impressive; a mixture of well-known bottlesโDenavoloโs Dinavolino is often found thereโand lesser-known producers, with diversity and stability as the only requirements. Some bottles just beg to be open and drunk, Mattson says, while others can stand a little time. These considerations, including the fact that sometimes skin contact wines shine a few days later, make for a robust and thoughtfully curated by-the-glass list.
A recent standout is the 2016 Costador โ1954โ Xarel-lo from Catalonia. After a pregnant pause to consider, Mattson says this is her favorite by the glass right now. Xarel-lo, known best as one of the grapes in cava, is not one that typically excites on its own. โThis wine is stunning. Itโs complex, it has tropical notes, itโs affordable,โ Mattson says. After maceration for two days, it ferments in amphora then is transferred to barrels for seven months after spontaneous malolactic fermentation.
We left Mattson to plan for their next event: an Easter Sunday winemaker dinner featuring Hervรฉ Souhaut of Domaine Romaneaux-Destezet in the Rhone Valley. To exit in the evening and spill onto the streets of Brooklyn is a shock after the sensory delight that is June, but such is the friendly local wine bar that’s also helping drive the drinking tastes of modern Brooklynโand from here, the world beyond.
Photos by Fanny Delsol.
