All of the wines produced by CrossHatch Winery are co-fermented blends sourced from Santa Barbara County vineyards. CrossHatch was created in 2011 by winemaker Ryan Carr. After making only single varietal wines for eleven years, Ryan wanted to try something different. He and his wife Jessica came up with the idea for CrossHatch, inspired by the classic form of art. Cross hatching is an artistic technique that uses closely spaced intersecting lines to create shading, definition, and form in a drawing.
Carr took this technique and adapted it into the winemaking process by harvesting multiple varietals on the same day, then crushing and fermenting them together. Some of the best and oldest wines in the world are made this way, but with the microclimates of Santa Barbara it really adds another layer to the process. Co-fermentation brings out and creates flavors in the wine that would not have existed otherwise. This makes the CrossHatch wine truly one of a kind. Only 1000 cases are produced each year.
The labels were inspired by the antique winemaking equipment Ryan and his dad have collected over the years. Local Santa Barbara artist, Thomas Van Stein, used the crosshatch technique to draw the images of the crusher, corkscrew, basket press, decanter, and barrels used on the labels. Each image captures the spirit of the wine in the bottle.
