DEBRA DEL FIORENTINO

A consummate wine and culinary professional, Debra Del Fiorentino brings a dynamic energy to the Russian River Vineyards team in her role as Wine Educator and Consumer Marketing Director.

Born and raised in San Francisco, Debra is a second generation Italian from a large family that originally settled in the Napa Valley. Her passion for food was kindled at an early age under the able tutelage of her grandmother. After earning a Bachelors Degree in Business from the University of California at Berkeley, Debra opened two gourmet food stores in San Francisco. Instantly, she got hooked on catering and studied at Tante Marie in San Francisco to become a certified chef. She opened her own catering and event planning business — “The Big Event” — doing large-scale events for various corporations and other major clients, including The Emmy Awards and The America’s Cup. As her interest in both food and wine evolved, Debra continued her education, earning Sommelier, Certified Wine Professional and Certified Specialist of Wine degrees.

An International Professional Wine Judge, Debra is a familiar face at numerous prestigious wine competitions, including the West Coast Wine Competition, the North of the Gate Wine Competition, the National Women’s Wine Competition and the International Grand Harvest Awards, among others. Her extensive experience in sales, marketing and management in both the food and wine industries has been highly sought after by many gourmet food and wine stores, with which Debra has served as a consultant.

At Russian River Vineyards, Debra is the heart and soul of our consumer marketing effort and is a tireless champion of wine education, lending her tremendous expertise to our wine program, our restaurant and our on-site events business.