Haunted Wineries

Recently I wrote about a Haunt Jaunt my husband and I made to Arrington Vineyards.

It wasn’t a true Haunt Jaunt, though. As far as I know it’s not haunted. But it did get me wondering about haunted wineries.

So I did a search and this is what I came up with for any of you interested in making a Haunt Jaunt to a haunted winery.

CALIFORNIA’S WINE COUNTRY

As perhaps the best known wine-making region in the U.S., it’s no wonder that with all of the wineries in California, this is where I found the most mentions of haunted wineries.

The first one that caught my eye was Robert P. Farmer’s article “Ghost Wineries: Where Wine Country Began, the Spirit Remains.” It doesn’t give specifics about ghosts you’ll find among the wineries exactly. It mostly gives an interesting account of Napa’s first incarnation of wineries back in the late 1800s and the “ghost wineries” that resulted thanks to Prohibition.

Next I found a Halloween event at a Napa winery: Fright Night at Trefethen Haunted Winery.

The trail then led me to Sonoma Ghosts, which offers ghost tours of Sonoma. It has an area on its site devoted to Sonoma’s Haunted Wineries with links to the three in particular: Bartholomew Park Winery, Buena Vista Winery, and Sebastiani Vineyards & Winery.

Oh, and what kind of post would this be without mentioning a ghost guide. (You know how I love haunted travel guides.) That’s why I was psyched to come across the Ghost Hunter’s Guide to California’s Wine Country by Jeff Dwyer.

I also stumbled across an unexpected source of info about haunted wineries on the Wine Institute‘s site. They had posted an article called “The Ghostly Lore of California Wine Country” in which “winery members relate[d] personal experiences and those of other staff about various ethereal happenings” at the Concannon Vineyard in Livermore Valley and the Dry Creek Vineyard in Dry Creek Valley. Wonderful stuff!

THE HAUNTED WINERY

I didn’t have much luck coming up with info about haunted wineries outside of California. (I’m sure there must be some out there, but it’s going to require a bit more research on my part.)

However, I did come across this one: The Haunted Winery, a Halloween haunted house in Michigan. It’s a 111 year old building that used to be a powerhouse for electric trolley lines before it changed hands and started producing wine as the LaSalle Winery.

But there were these vats, see. Vats used to age wines that proved to be death traps for humans who maintained them. The souls who were lost there haunt the old LaSalle winery now. And it’s their souls which were disturbed when the new owners began restoration on the building. They don’t seem to appreciate visitors much, so only the bravest should wander into this relic now…

Courtney Mroch

Courtney Mroch is a globe-trotting restless spirit who’s both possessed by wanderlust and the spirit of adventure, and obsessed with true crime, horror, the paranormal, and weird days. Perhaps it has something to do with her genes? She is related to occult royalty, after all. Marie Laveau, the famous Voodoo practitioner of New Orleans, is one of her ancestors. (Yes, really! As explained here.) That could also explain her infatuation with skeletons.

Speaking of mystical, to learn how Courtney channeled her battle with cancer to conjure up this site, check out HJ’s Origin Story.