Battista Belvisi has always worked with wine He started his career at a young age making traditional passito and Pantelleria wines with his father and grandfather. He went to college in Palermo studying agriculture and there he met his wife Pina.

Unlike most of his contemporaries who fled Pantelleria if they were able to go to a university, Battista’s father convinced him to come back to the island to see if he could put his knowledge to work locally. He decided to follow his father’s advice and came back to do a number of agrarian jobs. After a few years he was involved with wine and worked for 3 years as a consultant for Abraxas, an established mid-size (26ha) winery in Pantelleria.

Soon after he would begin a collaboration with Gabrio Bini where he grew the grapes and made the wine of the Seragghia winery for 11 years. In 2015, after 14 years working for other companies, Battista decided to start his own production and founded Abbazia San Giorgio. His goal in winemaking is to make wines he believes in, enjoys and are done in his own style. Battista Belvisi is very focused on producing natural, low intervention wines.

He doesn’t have organic or biodynamic certifications by choice, as he does not believe their standards are rigid enough. His farming is however completely organic, he likes to call it “more than organic”, and he uses a range of biodynamic techniques to reveal the best of the terroir and the fruit in his wine.