The Back Stories Behind Spooky Wine Labels

Just in time for Halloween, a few wine-infused chills and thrills

Edgy, dark and sometimes sinister, many wine and spirits producers use dark imagery as a way to tell a story—real or created—about their estates. I became interested in the idea while perusing the offerings for a Halloween-themed wine story for a few years ago. My research turned up the usual suspects that make a ghostly appearance each year: Concha y Toro’s Casillero del Diablo (the devil’s cellar), Louis Martini’s Ghost Pines, Michael David Winery’s 7 Deadly Zins and Freakshow and many others that had murky themes.

But, when I dug deeper, I found many other labels that went beyond the gimmicky “fear factor” and showed beautiful intentional, and still haunting, designs. Some told a haunted tale or dark narrative. Others used supernatural or mystic imagery to tell other stories—about heritage or craft. Here are four ghost stories, best told with a glass of wine in hand.

Bogle “Phantom” Central Valley (California). Chris Catterton of Bogle Vineyards, remembers a 10-year period of time when workers in the winery would regularly hear footsteps on the catwalk, or see a shadow of work boots walking through the building. So eerie and unexplained were the occurrences that the bottling crew didn’t want to work in the morning when the apparition was most active. When it came time to name their new wine, they wanted to reference the old vine zinfandel that inspired their beginnings, and also give a nod to the unknown spirit that haunted the cellar. Rather than portray a ghost—an already popular theme—Catteron said, “We wanted it to be kind of haunting through a thought-provoking picture.” Blend of Petit Sirah and Zinfandel.

Murder Ridge Winery, Mendocino Ridge. Owners Leslie Sisneros and Steve Alden created their label to not only leverage the dark history of a 1911 murder on the property, but to reflect their own artistic interests which lean toward the melancholy. “We like dark stuff—dark pictures and we wanted to tie it all in and crows was one of the things we like: they are the harbingers of bad, evil things and there’s a lot of mystery that surrounds them.” And, she says, that a group of crows is called a murder is the icing on the label. Portfolio includes a red blend and single varietal Pinot Noir and Zinfandel.

Owen Roe “Sinister Hand,” Columbia Valley, Washington. Legend has it that during a 17^th-century rowing competition over land rights between two Irish families, the O’Neills and O’Reillys, a member of the team on the trailing boat cut off his hand with his sword and threw it ashore, thus being the first to touch—and claim—the land. It was a ghastly trick that worked: the land still remains in the family. Red blend of Rhone varieties

Ravenswood “Besieged,” Sonoma County. The ominous sky on the label is the backdrop for a harvest horror story for winemaker Joel Peterson. As a storm moved in, Peterson, then a 29-year-old winemaker working solo, raced to haul his crates of harvested grapes before the sky opened. “At that time, two ravens came into the vineyard and started their call—“it was surreal and really weird,” he recalled. “It rained around me but not on me and the ravens stuck with me the whole way. It was mysterious and like magic.” Besieged pays tribute to both his state of mind and the birds he says were his totem. Red blend of Petite Sirah, Carignane, Zinfandel, Syrah, Alicante Bouschet, Barbera