FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA'S RUBICON ESTATE NAPA VALLEY - Voice To Voice EVP #13

One doesn't think of Napa Valley when they first consider potential haunted locations.  You  think of wine and cheese and relaxation.  But if you consider the age of most of the wineries in Napa Valley you might re-imagine the concept.

One winery that I and select friends visit nearly every trip, is Francisco Ford Coppola's Rubicon Estate.  He purchased the estate in 1975 after "The Godfather II" was released into theaters.  It was originally established in 1880 by one of the valley's pioneer wine makers, Gustave Niebaum.  He was a sea captain who also had a strong affiliation for wine making and set out to prove that it could be made just as good, if not better than Europe.

I go to thinking just before my most recent visit, why not try some EVP work at the winery itself.  You might ask, 'where are on earth is there a quiet spot to do such a thing with all of the winery aficionados and tourists wandering the grounds?'  Well, luck was with us this particular Saturday and there were not many around.  I was able to sneak away with my friend Lisa, and visit a room where they hold some of the original wine casks from when Niebaum was still making wine.  As I wandered around the casks I asked some questions and then Lisa and I went up on the catwalk (she made me) and I continued as we explored an area that wasn't roped off.  Again, I stress, Lisa made me.

It was an interesting place up there and there are old pictures where you can see the workers looking down at the open barrels of wine grapes below the catwalk; the room used to be full of them.

I recorded some interesting results from this trip and one in particular is a little disturbing.  It is one that although difficult to hear, is startling.  You first hear Lisa's camera beep then it takes a picture, then you hear a series of rapping sounds that are very fast.  Well, I present this EVP first untouched, "as is" then I clean it up and slow it down more and more so you can understand the speech.  It ended up being the phrase, "I have the power to crush these people."    Wow, is all I can say.  Somebody is very confident and sure of themselves. 

I find it interesting that most people who work in EVP's tend to only listen for what I call obvious and surface speech.  By these I mean words, phrases or even sentences where the speech is as loud and as clear as they speak themselves.  If you take some of that background audio in between and amplify it up, you will be amazed at how many more layers there really are to this field.  I will go into more details on EVP manipulation at a later time, but for now, here is a video of the more prominent EVP's I captured on my recent trip to Napa; enjoy!

A. Anderson