Cheers to 10 years at the hatch!

Cheers to 10 Years: Thank You for Celebrating with us!

Ten years ago, the hatch opened its doors with a dream to create something truly different - a place where wine, whimsy, and wonder could collide in the heart of the Okanagan. What started as a rustic shack from the future has grown into a tasting emporium, a gathering place, and a home for eccentric dreams and extraordinary wines.

This past weekend, we celebrated a decade of the hatch with all of you - our incredible community of wine lovers, adventurers, and curious souls. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you for showing up, raising a glass, and making this milestone unforgettable.

We also want to extend a heartfelt thank you to Paul Morstad, the brilliant artist behind all of our label artwork. Paul joined us for the celebration and generously signed limited-edition prints of the stunning 10-year birthday design he created just for the occasion. His creativity and vision have helped shape the identity of the hatch in ways words can hardly capture, and we’re so grateful he was part of this special evening. 

Your laughter, stories, and shared moments reminded us why we do what we do. The hatch has always been more than just a winery - it’s an experience, a feeling, and a celebration of the unexpected. And none of it would be possible without you.

Whether you’ve been with us since day one or just discovered our little corner of the valley, we’re so grateful to have you along for the ride. Here’s to bold tastes, whimsical tales, and many more years of hanging out, sipping something extraordinary, and embracing the magic of The Hatch.

A message from Jason Parkes

Here we are...10 years young! I never would’ve thought we’d be here a decade later, as our little shed was only supposed to be a makeshift, temporary outlet for some wines with attitude. It was meant to hold us over while we navigated red tape and tried to build something we considered, at the time, to be grander.

 But from the day we opened, we saw and learned that a bigger, fancier place might not be as beautiful. The hatch had a heartbeat from day one, thanks to the incredible people who’ve worked in that shop over the years, and because of the great art that Paul Morstad has supplied us with. It has a special feel; one we didn’t create. It was a combination of great things coming together.

 I’m personally so grateful to have had the opportunity to try something a little different from the start. It was a 50/50 shot, succeed or fail. And there are some days we feel like we failed, and other days we feel like we won.

 We proudly proclaim that we’re not perfect, and we’ll stay true to never being so. We’ll always be a little different, with a little bit of character, a whole lot of fun, and wines made from the heart.

 Thank you to everyone who has supported the hatch through the years. It’s very clear that it wouldn’t be here without those people, and that’s exactly what’s made it what it is today.

The Inside Scoop

THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE - Throwback Article from the year we opened

“That’s cool art. Where’d you get it from and what does it have to do with wine?”

That’s a fantastic question and one that must be addressed. But first, let us step back in time and go back all the way to June of 2014 in an office far far away (Summerland). We had this idea for the look of our wines, but our collective lack of artistic ability left us at a loss. We wanted something eccentric, something polarizing, unique, weird, powerful, genuine and most of all: artistic. Through the miracle of good fortune, we were put in contact with a jovial young artist, based out of Vancouver, named Paul Morstad. Via a connection, Paul sent us an email introduction along with some examples of his work. I recall opening the first image in his email, the image we now use for ‘Ross O. & B. Yanco’ and thinking immediately, ‘Oh #$&!, this solves everything’. We continued to open the attachments, and on the third image (Birds Eye View) I can recall looking at my colleague and thinking ‘You’d better like these’ and him looking at me and saying ‘I think we have something here’. And like that, a star was born. And even more so, a winery got its image and our lovely little wines got their labels. Now this isn’t just a simple story of a couple guys reading an email and liking some pictures, as thrilling as that kind of story is. This is a story of actual destiny. For you see, Paul isn’t just a random dude whose art we love (I mean, he is, in a sense), but Paul and his art are inextricably linked to our land and our location and our ideas. After agreeing that yes, this was what we had all been dreaming of, we set-off to meet the man behind such remarkable works of art; and I kid you not, both of these stories are 100% true:

1. Paul, amongst other things, is an avid birder. One of his favourite birds is the Black Swift – the name sake to our other line of wines. The Black Swift is a rare, mysterious bird that flies higher than any other bird and lives its life mostly alone. Except when they congregate during their annual migration; a migration that leads them exclusively into British Columbia. A flock of Black Swifts is called a ‘Screaming Frenzy’ (marketing gold, and also a line of our wines). It has been Paul’s goal to see a Screaming Frenzy for years. Last year, on a cycling trip from Vancouver to Kelowna, Paul and his friends saw a Screaming Frenzy for the first time in Osoyoos. The story has it of Paul’s friend looking up at the sky, with a horrified look on his face, to which Paul asked ‘what’s wrong, you okay?’ His friend then shook with excitement, pointed to the sky behind him and uttered what is come to be our in-house motto ‘It’s a #&$#!%& SCREAMING FRENZY!!’ to which Paul turned around, took at all in and they both cracked a beer and celebrated. Two weeks after this sighting, he heard from us to commission illustrations for a winery called ‘Black Swift Vineyards’ and line of wines called ‘Screaming Frenzy’.

2. So we get to know (and love) Paul a little more and we tell him about the project more and where it is, and show him on google maps the exact location of ‘the hatch’ here in West Kelowna. Paul looked at the map, smiled and said ‘of course I have to work with you, I almost died in that vineyard!’ It turns out, as a teenager, Paul lived in West Kelowna and one wayward night, he and his friends ‘borrowed’ a car and went for a cruise around town. Driving down Boucherie Road, he took the turn a little fast and a little sharp, and the car went off the road, rolling down the embankment into the vineyard that we now own. That is to say, the vineyard that his art now adorns.

As much as we love the art, and the look it’s more than just art to us. Paul, and his art, were the last piece of the puzzle that we needed to make ‘the hatch’ what it is you see today. A place, we like to say, where many forms of art come together and are celebrated. Through our rustic shack in the Okanagan Valley, we embrace the eccentricities of grape growing, wine making, living and drinking with our unconventional, yet extraordinary endeavors.

#itsallcomingtogether

With gratitude and a whole lot of wine,
the JPC Team