Technology has revolutionised grape harvesting, yet hand-picking remains irreplaceable where vertiginous slopes and terraces make mechanisation impossible. From Champagne to Valtellina, a journey through expert hands and optical sorters to discover when the way a bunch is picked truly makes a difference.

Why do the world's finest wines emerge from places where labour is hardest? From the vertiginous slopes of Germany's Mosel to the dry-stone terraces of Valtellina, this journey explores how gradient, aspect and the slow rhythm of ripening shape the character of wine in the glass.

Carved by the rivers Sil and Miño in inland Galicia, Ribeira Sacra is a landscape of extreme viticulture: vertiginous terraces, stone walls, and vineyards clinging to rock. Wine here is not a statement but a consequence—of geography, of patience, of a quiet dialogue between monasteries, growers, and gravity itself.