It’s December in the laboratory and the last four months have gone by in a blur, passing by in an instant and simultaneously, so slowly. In the months running back and forth with samples from the production floor to the lab, and standing at the lab bench, performing manual TAs, pHs, FSO2s, and more - you deserve a much-needed break. Your back hurts, the fruit flies are seemingly doing everything they can to set up a permanent home in your lab, and your interns, whose energy and liveliness you are already missing, are slowly trickling off to their next winery adventure. You haven’t had time to think about anything other than grapes, juice and ferments for what feels like forever, and suddenly the holidays are here. There is still so much to do.  It feels like you should be slowing down, but the consistent pressure to get numbers back to the winemakers for movements is still there. Not to mention you now have weeks of time-consuming ML checks on top of everything else