“Some people have been here more than 25 years, they know exactly what they have to do and they do it with great love and attention because they’ve contributed to Zachys’s success and popularity, and they’re rightly proud of that.”

It’s just that positive attitude in the face of adversity that has helped keep so many customers coming back. “You know, this is a business with three generations of Zacharia,” says Alex, “they’ve been here for 60 years, everybody knows Zachys.” And he’s right. Every Saturday, customers come from the local area as well as New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania, both to select wines that can’t be found everywhere – such as Bordeaux – and to get advice from Zachys. The advertisement that features every Wednesday in The New York Times is just the “cherry on the cake.”

A little history lesson is probably in order at this point. Founded in 1944 by Zachy Zacharia, the East Parkway Wine and Liquor House, later to become Zachys, was just a small corner store where the locals of Scarsdale came to purchase their choice of beverage for the evening.
In 1961 Don Zacharia, Zachys's only son, came into the business and changed it forever. Starting out with two employees, he has never looked back, and what was once the "wine and liquor business " has now become the "Fine Wine Industry ".

Don's son Jeff Zachria joined him in 1983 and quickly became instrumental in Zachys’s success. The company has always been a family business and since the beginning, has continued to grow and grow and grow.

So what happens at Zachys when it’s not a Saturday or Thanksgiving.Well, you’ll be surprised to hear that nearly 85% of the company’s turnover is from phone and Internet orders, their website having become one of the most attractive and successful of its kind according to Forbes magazine.

When you first hear that there are 125 employees at Zachys, you wonder where they’re all hiding. This is fairly quickly resolved with a short tour of the first floor and the company property with Alex Javadi. There are six permanent buyers, four website managers, five people taking telephone orders, six in advertising, two in auctioning and around sixty other people that you’ll be able to find more about on www.zachys.com.

And as if that weren’t enough, there’s now “Zachys plus”, the New York Fine Wine Storage, a 30,000 square foot warehouse in White Plains (details on the Internet).“That’s three cellars for us,” Alex says, “when we buy 500 cases of Château Gloria, 450 stay in White Plains, and 45 200 meters from here in another depot.”"Then four in the shop cellar and another case on the shelves. That’s what Zachys is all about, huh."

INTERVIEW WITH JEFF ZACHARIA AND ALEX JAVADI :
By Anthony Chicheportiche

A.C : Jeff , what does Zachys stand for ?

J.Z : Good wine, good prices, good services – that’s
why our customers keep coming back to us.

A.C : Tell us a little about Bordeaux wines, which you’re somewhat passionate about.

J.Z : My father started the Zachys adventure with Bordeaux and Burgundy wines. Here, we have a very wide range of Bordeaux, from the small winegrower to the Premiers Grand Crus Classes, and a lot of new wines that I personally choose every year, during my frequent visits to France.If you go back to my father’s day, 50 years ago, Bordeaux as the wine.

A.C : So it isn’t any longer I thought Bordeaux wines were Jjust a speculating tool for Americans.

A.J : That’s true and the best example of it was the 2000 millesime. The first price for a case of Château Latour was $2,800. Today, the same case is worth $7,000 at auction. For 2004, it’s the opposite, and if you want to exaggerate and caricature the US market, I’d say that people have not bought 2004 for fear of losing money!

A.C : So why is Bordeaux going through a crisis currently, as it has been for three years.

J.Z : Too much competition. On every level, even for the great Bordeaux wines. The quality is there elsewhere and we have to realize that now.Plus, our customers ask for types of vine, even for Bordeaux – you often hear people say “I want a cabernet from Bordeaux” and except for a few wine-lovers, things get even more complicated when they start asking about the details of the various Bordeaux appellations.
Plus, you know, even I’m competition within my own company!He laughs). My brother-in-law looks after other areas such as Italian, Chilean and Australian wines. And, believe me, this competition is aggressive and high-quality.

A.C : Well, could you say a few words about these “New World” wines as the French call them.

A.J : It’s very simple. We’re looking at product from South America, California, Australia and South Africa because it sells well and there is a great amount of demand from consumers. We are now considered one of the finest Italian wine shops in the country.

A.C : And where does champagne stand in all this.

J.Z : It’s more complicated with champagne. The brands are very powerful and have their own distribution networks.

A.J : But we shouldn’t forget that New York is the place where more champagne is drunk than anywhere in the world. It’s used to celebrate a business success or just for a party. We have a lot of telephone orders from Wall Street and the United Nations...

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