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Another Haunted Winery

GEYSER PEAK WINERY, in Geyserville, has its own ghostly legend. "Rosie," laughs Ann Rizzo, vice president of public relations. "Our resident ghost." Rosie resides in the Geyser Peak offices, which employees call the White House and which was formerly an farmhouse. She is named after the Rose family, who had once owned the property, located across the freeway from the winery proper. "Rosie just seems to run around," Rizzo says. Like Amy, Rizzo appears somewhat amused to be discussing this at all, but is equally caught up in the, er, spirit of it all. "It's the kind of thing where lights come on all by themselves, toilets get flushed when no one is in there. And you go, 'Hmmmm. Interesting.' "A lot of people won't work here at night because of Rosie," she chuckles. "But it never bothers me." As a scientific experiment, Rizzo and a former employee would randomly test Rosie's existence in various ways. "We'd be leaving together at night," Rizzo explains, "and we'd both say, 'OK, I'm turning off this light, you're turning off that light. The lights are off. OK? OK.' "She'd go to SRJC for a night class, she'd drive back by on her way home, and she'd always see a light on in the upstairs window. You can see it from the freeway. She'd go, 'I know we turned that light off!' Sometimes she'd stop. Come inside. Turn the light off. Lock the door. And in the morning, it would be on again. "It's been happening for years," she says. And what about these flushing toilets? "I know!" she laughs. "It's the weirdest thing. Why would a ghost use a toilet. Maybe it's just to make us nervous. I think Rosie is a teasing ghost. She's a goodhearted little thing." There are, Rizzo confirms, no reports of Rosie slipping across the road to sample the wines in the tasting room. "There have been no reports of Rosie doings on that side of the operation," she says. "We have an occasional rattlesnake over there, though, so I think I'd rather be over here with Rosie." [ Sonoma Independent | MetroActive Central | Archives ]