About Martinez

John Martinez founded Martinez Fine Wine in 1979 purely as a wholesale operation working from a premises in Bradford. In 1981 we opened a shop on the Grove in Ilkley before expanding to a second shop in Harrogate in 1985, followed by a third in Street Lane, Leeds, in 1986. As fate would have it John's ill health forced the Leeds and Harrogate shops to close in 1989. In 1992 John's son Julian returned from working in New Zealand and the USA and bought his father's share in the Ilkley shop in September before reopening the Harrogate shop in 1993. Things moved along steadily until 1996 when Martinez was approached by and took a 50% stake in Vibona Olive Oils, which we then took over in the summer of 1999, and by that time we felt the market place was right to move back into wholesale, and a new division was set up. We opened another shop in Horsforth in September 1998. The next upheaval took place in January 2000 when we moved the Ilkley shop across the road and a hundred yards down The Grove to our existing location.

In January 2003 Martinez was forced to restructure. We consolidated the wholesale division back to Ilkley. Phil Ball bought out Julian Martinez's share of the Harrogate shop and is now no longer part of the Martinez franchise. Finally, at the beginning of the year Julian made the decision to close the Horsofth shop. Eclectic, one of our partners in Kendal has since taken to stocking a range of Martinez products. The overall result has meant a year of change and reflection for Martinez, but has allowed the business to be brought back to basics and new more robust systems put in place.

Our present schedule is a seemingly endless series of wine events; tastings and dinners, plus exclusive and En Primeur offers. Our guests from the wine industry include such influential folks as Paul Draper of Ridge, glassmaker Georg Riedel, Geoff Weaver, Domaines Schlumberger, Glenn Thomas of Vavasour, Larry McKenna of Martinborough, Adam Wynn of Mountadam, Dick Ward of Saintsbury and many more.

We believe our approach is unique in that we won't put a wine on the shelf we don't like even if we know it'll sell. Unless we're completely happy with a product we won't stock it. Everything we stock has been through a rigorous selection process with all members of staff involved in tastings. This enables us to sell everything we stock with confidence as we have the product knowledge and tasting experience required. Our customers can therefore be assured that whichever wine they select has been carefully chosen with only quality and value in mind.