Ghosts of Napa Valley is a documentary film by Jason Wise, the James Beard award-winning director behind the Somm series, and seeks to take a light-hearted and spooky look at haunted tales in the region.
It follows three friends – sommelier Claire Coppi, wine writer Shakera Jones and winemaker Meghan Zobeck – as they explore ghost stories in Napa Valley’s Spring Mountain district, aided by a Ouija board.
Released for streaming via Somm TV from 11 October, Wise described the film as fun but also intense.
‘I have been wanting to tell a ghost story in the form of a documentary for a long time, but I never assumed it would be around wine,’ Wise told Decanter.
‘When I filmed my first film “SOMM” I came upon a number of repurposed, as well as abandoned, structures in Napa and Sonoma dating back to the late 1800s. Many of these “Ghost Wineries” are not open to the public and all of the old buildings have a fair amount of trauma and tragedy in their history, which makes it easy for people’s minds to run when one is there in the dark or alone.’
He said viewers’ experience of the film may well be influenced by whether or not they already believe in ghosts.
‘We witnessed and captured some very odd and intense things while making this film and some of them will be up to the viewer to explain what they saw or heard.’
He added, ‘The cast of this film: Claire Coppi, Meghan Zobeck, and Shakera Jones are three of the smartest, funniest and likeable people I have ever had in a film I’ve directed, so I do know that viewers will have a lot of fun watching them try to make sense of what they are witnessing.’
He said filming was a ‘wild process’, because the cast and production team didn’t really know what would happen, if anything.
‘The film is pretty tense, but there is no way to show what it felt like to be in these places at midnight trying to contact ghosts.’
He said it was ‘scary as hell making this documentary, and I hope some of that energy we felt comes through in the finished film’.
While Napa Valley’s fabled ‘ghost wineries’ provide a part of the premise for the film, historians have previously pointed out that the term wasn’t coined in response to reports of paranormal activity.
Instead, it’s related to a boom period for wine that was halted by Prohibition in 1920.
Some estates were abandoned and continue to exist as symbols of Napa Valley’s winemaking heritage, while others have been revived with fresh investment, as explained in an article published by the Visit Napa Valley organisation in 2016.
Screenings for Ghosts of Napa Valley will take place at Laemmle cinemas in Los Angeles between 15 and 18 October, including a cast and crew Q&A, as well as a pouring of Smith Madrone wine. A Chicago screening was also planned, but a date wasn’t confirmed.
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