The Little Things about Yquem

I'm not going to elaborate on working at Yquem; one can describe it as a magical kingdom where elves dance around playing flutes and fiary godmothers conjure things with a wave of a wand. However, here are some little observations I made while there:

1) It takes approximately 10 minutes to walk from the back entrance of the cave, through the bottling area, across the subterranean cellar, up through the fermentation rooms and across the courtyard, to get to the laboratory.

2) There are 6 coffee makers in the production areas, not including those that may be in the private rooms of the castle.

3) It takes 45 minutes to an hour to walk the perimeter of the estate.

4) True story: One of the cellar crew murdered a game bird outside the back entrance by lobbing a palette plank at it.

5) The numeric code to get into the Yquem cellar is... yah right, not telling!

6) The harvest crew walked a cumulative total of 7,000 kilometers during 6 weeks of harvest. Yes, someone actually figured this out.

7) The music of choice in the laboratory is Rihanna and Brick & Lace.

8) It takes about 25 seconds to roll a barrel from one end of the subterranean cellar to the other, unless one is barrel-racing.

9) The guard dog's name is Minos.

10) Whichever vineyard parcels are being harvested smell like marijuana a lot.