specs.
vineyard, grape & craft
- Grape Catarratto, zibbibo
- Systemtype guyot
- Soil ziltig zand met kalkrijke ondergrond, volcanic
- Stick density per hectare 5500
- Avg. age of the vineyard 30 jaar
- Avg. production per hectare 55hl
Abbazia San Giorgio ° Battista Belvisi
Pantelleria is a very special island. The black volcanic cone lost in the Mediterranean between Sicily and Africa expresses an intense character and a strong identity that can be found even in the simplest agricultural products.
Certain people honour this identity and, without knowing it, are the embodiment of the soul of Pantelleria. One is Battista Belvisi, a farmer and winemaker. In 2015, together with Beppe Fontana, a travelling gourmet and chef, they formed what was then a tiny winery called Abbazia San Giorgio. Three and a half hectares of vineyards are situated on the outskirts of the village of Khamma, in the south-eastern part of the island.
In 2015, Battista and Beppe produced 1,000 bottles of Passito, 2,000 of a dry Zibibbo (local name for Muscat of Alexandria), and 1,000 bottles of red. Most of these get sold in a flash on the island.
Since then, Abbazia San Giorgio has grown both in terms of worldwide recognition of the quality of its wines, now exported in many foreign countries, as well as in terms of bottles produced.
Divided into small plots 900 feet above sea level, the vines are on average 60 years old. Two-thirds are cultivated with Zibibbo grapes, while the remaining are Carignano, Grillo, Nerello Mascalese, Alicante, and Pignatello (known by the natives as (Nostrale). The vines are trained in the traditional local practice of vite ad alberello, a technique that is included in the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, the first of its kind to have received this prestigious distinction.
