The Evolving Hand: From the Vineyard to Surgery, a Reflection on Our Future

Ilaria’s Diary — Verona, October 2026

Some encounters seem far removed from our work, yet bring us back to its very essence. Dr Massimo Corain has been a dear friend since our high school days. Today, he is a professor and Head of the Hand Surgery and Microsurgery Department in Verona.

This longstanding friendship gave me the opportunity to attend the 64th National Congress of the Italian Society for Surgery of the Hand, held from 15 to 17 October at Palazzo della Gran Guardia in Verona.

The congress title, “Hand Surgery and Microsurgery: The Evolving Hand”, touched on a question that accompanies our daily work at Tenuta Santa Maria Valverde: what value will the work of human hands hold in tomorrow’s agriculture? Could a humanoid robot one day take its place?

Hands Know the Vineyard: Harvesting by Hand

In the vineyard, we witness every day how much knowledge a single gesture can hold: in pruning, in selecting a bunch, in gently laying down the grapes destined for appassimento.

The hand works together with experience: sensing texture, guiding a choice, adjusting pressure. As it performs one action, it gathers information that helps determine the next.

In the cellar, too, manual skill is part of our knowledge: gestures repeated over the years, refined through observation and passed on by working together. This heritage lives within people, and every harvest puts it to the test once again.

How many thousands of times have I been asked that familiar question: are the grapes harvested by hand?

Yes, hands mean everything to us.

Without them, our Amarone could never exist.

The hand picks the bunch from the vine and places it in the wooden crate with meticulous care, in a gesture I would almost describe as “maternal”.

Could a Humanoid Robot Inherit This Knowledge?

Technology invites us to ask practical questions. How much could it help with the most physically demanding tasks? Which gestures could it reproduce? And how would the role of those who grow grapes and make wine change?

I have no definitive answer.

But I believe that, to imagine the future, we must first recognise everything we entrust to our hands today: precision, sensitivity, the ability to respond to the unexpected and responsibility for our choices.

I am interested in innovation that can ease physical effort and create more room for care. That is why I want to understand what lies ahead while keeping alive the artisanal knowledge that gives our wines their identity.

Bringing Valpolicella to the World

Taking part in this congress was meaningful for another reason: we had the opportunity to represent Verona’s local identity before an international audience of doctors.

I felt both pride and responsibility in telling, through our wines, the story of a place shaped by hills, families, landscapes and daily work. This is another way Verona welcomes the world: by offering an encounter with those who cultivate and care for its land.

The professions of doctor and winegrower have very different purposes and responsibilities.

On this occasion, however, I recognised a theme that resonates deeply with my own work: the relationship between knowledge, sensitivity and gesture.

I returned to the vineyard with an even more pressing question about the future of manual skill. And with the desire to keep sharing just how much experience, attention and work by human hands go into every bottle we make.

Ilaria

Tenuta Santa Maria Valverde