Somm-antic Drift
Debbie Zachareas is the Proprietor and Managing Partner at the Ferry Plaza Wine Merchant in San Francisco’s restored Ferry Building, Mission Bay Wine & Cheese in San Francisco, and the Oxbow Cheese & Wine Merchant in downtown Napa. She was the consulting wine director to the Warriors at the Chase Center and has recently opened her latest Wine Bar at Chase Center’s Thrive City, Mission Bay Wine Bar. She is the wine consultant to Izzy’s Steak House in the Bay Area, and the Madrona in Healdsburg. She is also a well-known wine judge, lecturer, sommelier, and guest speaker throughout the country.
Zachareas has served as a trustee for the French American International School and International High School, as well as Family House, San Francisco. She chairs and volunteers for a number of fundraisers close to her heart, including Make a Wish, Meals on Wheels and the Food Bank, just to name a few.
Zachareas’s past include developing some of the most innovative wine programs that have helped to shape the city’s wine culture. She was the founder of one of San Francisco’s most extensive wine programs at bacar restaurant, the wine buyer for the Ashbury Market, EOS Restaurant and Wine Bar, the opening sommelier at Rubicon Restaurant, and the opening wine director at Vertigo in the TransAmerica Building. She won the inaugural Wine Director of the year award for San Francisco Magazine and was the only sommelier ever to have won the award twice. Nationally recognized by Food and Wine Magazine, Market Watch, Wine Spectator and Saveur Magazines, Bloomberg, Women in Wine Leadership, The California Wine Institute and she remains a renowned international wine judge and brings a passion and expertise wine to her profession.