Sitting in the cozy D’Antan on a Crown Heights side street is like being transported to a rustic restaurant in rural Italy: there are vintage ceiling fans connected by a whirring loop, Italian newspapers hang on a wooden rack, a few tables sit outside for al fresco drinking and dining (with furry blankets in winter) and—most importantly—wine bottles are tucked into every possible nook and cranny of the tiny space.
Upon closer look, all of those wine bottles are Italian, and all of them are what is termed “natural.” Natural wine is wine that is grown organically and usually made in small batches, fermented with no added yeast or other additives, and typically left unfiltered. “Natural wine is so special because for me, it’s an agricultural expression of a specific territory, a wine made from respecting the land, by people connected to nature,” says Alessandro Trezza, the owner of D’Antan.
D’Antan is the third Italian restaurant (fourth if you count Park Slope gelato shop L’Albero Dei Gelati) opened by Trezza, an Italian native from outside Milan who moved to Brooklyn seven years ago with his wife and young son. Trezza is as passionate about wine as he is about sustainability and the slow food movement, and D’Antan’s 100-plus bottle wine and vermouth list is a testament to that.
“I studied a lot, but I have especially always had clear in my mind what wine and food mean to me: respect our Mother Earth,” says Trezza, whose three restaurants all exclusively offer natural wine. “Natural wine reflects agricultural and sustainable values, (and) these values need to be spread as much as we can, through a glass of wine.”
Trezza is so intent on sharing Italian natural wines with New Yorkers that he offers all the wines at D’Antan by the glass—extremely rare for New York City, and anywhere, really. “The idea behind this is to make each wine affordable, so everyone can enjoy a wine that she or he might have missed because of the price of the bottle,” says Trezza.
Trezza recommends orange wine, or skin-contact white wine, for natural wine newbies. It’s produced more like a red, by macerating white grape skins, which add tannin, giving the wine the texture, acidity, anti-oxidants and a little funk. The all-Italian staff is skilled at suggesting wines to sample and love to share the stories of the winemakers—making D’Antan is among the most unpretentious wine bars in New York, for sure.
To round things out, there are a few food dishes offered to complement the wine (not the other way around.) The fare is authentic Italian, with traditional Piedmont recipes like homemade eggy tajarin (Piedmontese for taglioni) pasta and Brasato in Barolo on the menu.