Last weekend I visited Tony Coturri from Coturri Winery, in Glen Ellen, just East of Santa Rosa. Two minutes after my arrival on top of his hill, I had a glass in hand and I was tasting a handful of his wines near his cellars. Tasting detail: I noticed that all his wines had a common thread: an intriguing late finish of chocolate and rubber. My pick to take home was a bottle of his 2007 zinfandel from the Testa vineyard in Mendocino.

I really had a good time questioning and listening to a winemaker who has been in the field for so long. We talked about the Prohibition, the European notion of food culture, the world of the big guys in the California wine industry, and… sulfur! I wanted to make sure I would properly cover this topic, so relevant to natural wine. And Tony Coturri is actually the only California winemaker I know who does not add sulfur to any of his wines.

For the usual “visit video”, I chose a joyful excerpt where Tony Coturri relates a story involving Francois from Jenny & Francois, the famous natural wine importer in New York.

Thanks Tony for the great discussions amid your zinfandel vineyard during that sunny and windy afternoon!