“Wine snob” ghost haunts pub

A “wine snob” ghost is lurking in the cellar of a Birmingham pub and smashing bottles of house wine, it has been claimed.

The ghost, named Corky by regulars at the Court Oak pub in Harborne, Birmingham, apparently has strong opinions about the wine list.

Part of the Sizzling chain, the pub is built on the site of a 17th century hanging ground, sparking speculation that Corky may be the ghost of someone who died there years ago.

Pub manager Anne Tyler said the ghost had given its opinion about the wine on offer every Hallowe’en for the last few years.

She told The Press Association smashed bottles of red and white house wine were discovered in the cellar until the selection was upgraded.

“It isn’t so much things that go bump in the night as things going smash in the night at the Court Oak,” Nuala Gallagher of Sizzling Pubs said.

“People have spotted the figure of a man, aged about 60, behind the bar and the staff have felt his presence numerous times over the years.

“But it’s Corky’s insistence on certain wines that set him apart as a spirit.

“It only ever happens at Hallowe’en. If the pub has a house wine that is not to his liking, he makes his feelings known by smashing bottle after bottle of it in the cellar until it is changed for a wine he approves of – he’s a bit of a wine snob.”