Phil Coturri has spent his life in vineyards. Now 73, and after finishing his 60th harvest as of 2025, he’s ready to pass the torch … sort of. “I’m not really retiring. I’m changing my level of responsibility,” says Coturri, with a laugh.
“Yeah,” says his son Sam, who is often alongside his father. “He’s cutting his time from 80 hours a week to 40.”
An avowed San Francisco hippie, Coturri moved to Sonoma Valley as part of the back-to-nature movement of the early 1970s. Despite his thinning hair, he still looks the part, with a long ponytail in the back. His beard is thick with gray. He’s been known to wear tie-dye shirts and freely quote Beat poets…