Ghosts in the (Winemaking) Machine

“This is how people die in horror films.” -Meghan Zobeck, winemaker, headed into her first ghost winery experience. Happy Halloween/Samhain/All Hallow’s Eve season, dear ghouls and goblins! Gosh, I love how gender-neutral being an apparition can be, but I digress. I am thrilled to introduce you to “Ghosts of Napa Valley,” the latest documentary from SommTV, which delves into some of Napa Valley’s biggest ghost stories. And by “delves,” I mean LUNGES into, with a Ouija board in hand, ready to meet the spirits, spirited glass of wine in hand. I was nervous about watching it—thrilled, too, as historically, I’ve found director Jason Wise to be an excellent documentarian—but nervous because I get scared easily. So I armed myself with a friendly glass of rosé and sat down to watch. How much it kept me up in the coming nights is for me to know, yet I came back for a re-watch. The documentary interrogates the lore of Napa’s “ghost wineries,” aka abandoned pre-prohibition wineries, not necessarily haunted. Some were reinvigorated after the Volstead Act was repealed, some were not, and some now have ghosts. Wise, who was raised in a house with a potential ghost, broached the topic with SommTV stalwart sommelier Claire Coppi, who is a tad obsessed with the occult herself. After that, “Claire and I were like that Spiderman meme, looking at each other, pointing.” It was an exploration they could not resist. It was a daring venture to take on! Getting ready to watch it, I wasn’t sure if I was in for truly spooky business, a history lesson, or both. Given that documentaries don’t have a given outcome, Wise was, in fact, worried he’d have nothing if, ya know, apparitions played it shy. “I was terrified nothing was going to happen…and I think it did. Honestly, there is some stuff not in the film that is hard to show that we all experienced,”…which, given what you see in the film, fills me with a healthy amount of alarm. From the get-go, I knew what I was watching was not your typical Somm doc! The first shots may be of bucolic vineyards, but they quickly shift to a haunting score paired with slightly shaky shots. This is not your grandma’s wine doc (though it may be her ghost’s). From there, they were off to the Napa region of Spring Mountain , which has a larger-than-usual number of haunted properties. From overnight recordings to see if things really went bump in the night to Ouija board sessions led by Coppi, the hunt for signs of the afterlife is both ephemeral and practical. I surmised that having a full crew might have made things feel safer, but Wise told me that given it was an (ahem) skeleton crew and that the space was ample, it “Didn’t feel safe. It felt weird. People wanted out.” Look, I’m not gonna say this movie will MAKE you believe; I’m not gonna say it won’t. If you are an occult doubter, you are at least going to accumulate some historical knowledge. But if you are open, and if you are into wine telling stories deeper than what is in your glass, and if you are in the mood for a scary movie WAY too close to reality…get ready to go off the deep end. “Ghosts of Napa Valley” is viewable on the SommTV streamer and screening in select locations. -------------------------------------- Want to read more from Ellen? Check out her recent articles: Vino Film Veritas Back to School: Wine 201 Second To... A Valpolicella For All Ellen in Lalaland: Atwater Village Voyage! The New Garagistes All the Cutwaters, All Lined Up BIANCO: An Italian Love Story You can also listen to Ellen's podcast, The Wine Situation here . Check out her recent transcripts of the Final Five questions: Wine Situation Final Five! Elyse Wilson Wine Situation Final Five! Kristin Fione