Sicily is Italy's southernmost region, and the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. For more than 2500 years Sicily (Sicilia in Italian) has been a significant center of Mediterranean viniculture. Blessed with consistently bright sunshine and reliably moderate rainfall, Sicily's classic Mediterranean climate is ideally suited to the production of excellent wine grapes. The magic is in the fertile soil and Sicily's long, cloudless summers – with humidity but virtually no rain from June until harvesting in late August – two factors which make Sicilian vintages remarkably consistent from year to year.