The climate in Sicily is warm and dry. But the landscape is mountainous and it can rain a lot when you get up in the mountains, as much as 1000 mm a year in some places. The mountains cool the vines and give a nice freshness to the wines. Hot days and cool nights in the region of Etna give a long growing season to the grapes and the harvest can be as late as the end of October or November.
But mostly it is a dry growing season. A good climate, says many growers, because they do not have to spray their vines so much. There are plenty of organic producers and some biodynamic ones. Many are experimenting with “natural wines”. Others like to try new things, like fermentation and ageing in clay pots (not really new of course, this was done thousands of years ago). Here’s more on a sample wine tour to Sicily.
