(Forbes) - Who harvests your grapes?

It's a question I ask in every wine region, and ideally to every producer, that I visit. Knowing the people who actually do the physical work in the vineyards is often an eye-opening piece of information, and it goes immediately to the heart of the ongoing conversation around issues of labor supply and the migration of workers.

The answers vary widely, from Vanuatu islanders in New Zealand to nomads in Lebanon to, as I heard during a meeting at the VinItaly International trade fair in Verona this week, Pakistanis in Tuscany.

It's a topic I've covered extensively in this column, from vineyards in Montepulciano to Sonoma. It resurfaced powerfully this week with a new article by Gaia Pianigiani in the New York Times on the "slavery" that was exposed by a woman's death two years ago while sorting grapes in southern Italy.* The "elaborate system of modern-day slavery" uncovered following the death of Paola Clemente involves "more than 40,000 Italian women, as well as migrant and seasonal laborers – that remains at the core of Italy’s agricultural economy.” Pianigiani reported that Clemente "would pick and sort table grapes for up to 12 hours a day, taking home as little as 27 euros a day, about $29, after middlemen skimmed her pay."