SPIRITED ASSUMPTIONS: There are assumptions around every tradition and every location and every tradition's preferred location for, er, traditioning. For example? Ghostly tours and haunted walks solely fall under the spell of autumn and those visits solely happen at purported-to-be-haunted homes and, occasionally, hotels. But we live in Southern California, which does pretty big year-round business in both the fictional ghosting (see: movies and television and themed attractions) and the historical, on-location ghosting (tours pop up throughout the calendar for places like the Queen Mary in Long Beach and San Diego's Whaley House). Meaning this: We can have our haunted tours outside of autumn and they can be at some pretty offbeat places. Like? Well, we'd call a winery an unusual spot to go looking for things that go bump in the night. (Partially, of course, because nobody should be bumping about nice bottles of wine, even vaporous ghosts.) But Haunted Orange County, those spirit-seekers with a gusto for going into ghostly spots, have a winery in mind, and they're heading there in the height of summer.
THE HEIGHT OF SUMMER... meaning Saturday, July 12. The Haunted OC crew'll venture north to Rancho Cucamonga and the Joseph Filippi Winery, which has been at its current location for well over a century. "(U)nexplained activity" has taken place around the historic property, including "phantom footsteps" and "music playing in the tasting room." Intrigued? Love vino and vapor-cool stories of wraith-eerie doings? Two of your interests are about to dovetail in one offbeat summertime outing. Tickets and need-to-knows are this way, oenophiles and ghost-o-philes.
