Coturri "Founders Series" California Red NV

Press 4 Mix/Red • February/March 2026 Direct Press Selection

I first met Tony Coturri back in 2011 when I organized some winemaker visits in Sonoma with a group of friends. We had our first visit at a more conventional winery. Not a vine or a winemaker was in sight, only aloof bartenders in a spacious, modern facility. But our next visit was with Tony Coturri, as I wanted to really show my friends a different side of the wine business that was closer to my heart. After driving up into the mountainous foothills around Glen Ellen, we pulled into a drive with a few modest buildings where 4 or 5 workers and family members were wrestling with giant bins of grapes that had just arrived from the vineyards.

Tony appeared with bees seeming to swarm out of his giant bushy beard, wiping grape debris on his t-shirt as he led us to taste in the corrugated metal doorway of a packed garage amidst the chaos of crush, far from the polish of corporate Sonoma wineries and in the lair of one of California's original natural winemakers.

Tony is a 4th generation winemaker, and his predecessors never used chemicals in the vineyard or cellar, so they have always been organic. None of the Coturris ever made the switch to agro-chemicals. The wines are also made without intervention. He makes a somewhat notorious Zinfandel with alcohol levels that climb towards 16% abv and has lots of residual sugar: it drinks, not surprisingly, more like Port than Calfornia Zin. Many winemakers would add yeast  — or do almost anything — to get the fermentation started again so the wine would finish dry. But Coturri prefers to let nature decide, and when the fermentation stops, it stops.

The Founders Series non-vintage red is a less challenging affair but still a great introduction to his feral, distinctive style. 50% Merlot from Mendocino, 25% Zinfandel from the vines near his house, and 25% Grenache from Sonoma. Fans of funky Georgian reds or La Stoppa (a frequent Direct Press favorite) will be right at home with this. Sappy, rich fruit, brambly blackberry, rooibos, and snappy cranberry on the finish, this is a big, California red that will redefine your expectations for that category. Tony has been doggedly making wine like this since 1980, far before any natural wine trend or definition existed. He's one of the cohort of unvarnished characters and ornery personalities that make the natural wine world colorful and interesting, and his wines capture this as well. Jonathan Kemp