Ghost Hill Cellars Ghost Story Contest Winner? Me!

My prize for winning: A Magnum ’09 Pinot Noir!

Last month, as I was tasting through some spooky themed wines for my annual list of top five Halloween wines, Ghost Hill Cellars topped the list, yet again. Not only is Ghost Hill Cellars located in Oregon (and you know I’m an Oregon wine gal), but they have outstanding wines with a name, and a spooky legend behind the name, that make their wines a perfect pick for Halloween – year after year.

While I was visiting the Ghost Hill Cellars website to gather some information for my Halloween piece, I saw that they were having a Ghost Story Contest. For the month of October, leading up to Halloween, people submitted their ghost stories, and Ghost Hill Cellars picked a winner each week. So, I decided I would submit my story, which is actually pretty chilling:

**In 2000, my sister and I decided to travel through Europe with a Eurorail pass in one hand and over-sized luggage in the other. We started out in the Netherland’s capitol city of Amsterdam and ended in Paris, France, with great stops in between including a stay in the historical city of Brugge, Belgium and a night in the Loire Valley of France in a castle, Chateau de Brissac, with the Duke and Duchess of Brissac. It was truly the adventure of a lifetime.

The Bourgondisch Cruyce – where the ghosts dwell in Brugge, Belgium

While we were in Brugge, however, we both experienced a spine tingling night while staying in the Bourgondisch Cruyce, a medieval era bed and breakfast that overlooks one of the many waterways and canals in Brugge. During the night, I vividly remember feeling the covers being pulled off of me and down towards the end of the bed. I pulled them back up, and it suddenly felt like someone had sat on my chest, I could barley breathe. Startled, I sat up with a jolt and immediately saw a figure standing and looking at himself in the full length mirror on the wall next to the bed. The figure was actually made of millions of tiny red and gray dots, but the image in the mirror was a solid black silhouette. I could clearly see the outlined shape of a man wearing a tail coat and top hat. I thought to myself, maybe too many Belgian beers at the pub earlier, and I tightly shut my eyes and refused to look again. In the morning, my sister told me she felt like someone had pulled the covers off of her too! We both left Brugge convinced the Bourgondisch Cruyce was haunted. 

My sister and I on the steps of Chateau de Brissac, Loire Valley, France

A few weeks after submitting my ghost story to Ghost Hill Cellars, I was notified that I had not only won the weekly prize with my eerie, ghostly tale (a $25 dollar voucher good towards purchases in the winery or on-line), but I had also been chosen as the overall contest winner, and a prize was on it’s way.

Today I received the prize: a magnum sized bottle of 2009 Ghost Hill Cellars Bayliss-Bower Vineyard Pinot Noir….YES!! I can’t wait to pop the cork and tell you all about this wine! Until then, cheers, and thanks to everyone at Ghost Hill Cellars!

**The strangest thing kept happening as I was writing this piece. The third paragraph kept disappearing. I have rewritten it 6 times, I’m hoping it will be there when I publish this…talk about creepy!