Wine-Searcher

The company was founded in 1998 by Martin Brown, a former e-commerce manager for London wine merchant Berry Bros & Rudd. In six months, Martin Brown coded the first version of the website, launching it in 1999. In 2006, the operation was shifted from London to Auckland, in Brown's native New Zealand.

In April 2018, Martin Brown stepped down as CEO of Wine-Searcher, succeeded by Julian Perry. The following year Wine-Searcher opened a UK office in London to strengthen its handle on the European and the US markets. In 2023 Wine-Searcher was taken over by Flaviar.

In May 2026 the company was acquired by GLX U.S. Inc. (GLX), a New York-headquartered company and wholly owned subsidiary of Platin Sàrl, the investment company of the Goudet family.

As of mid-2026 the company has a staff of around 80 employees, including software developers, designers, database administrators, data analysts, product managers, customer relationship managers, wine specialists and content writers. It has been self-funding throughout its history.

Every day Wine-Searcher collects and stores online wine lists from a global range of wine retailers, producers and auction houses. This is done by proprietary spiders, which access websites and data feeds or utilize custom integrations with the target source. Manual and automated operations run daily to ensure accurate content and remove incorrect or out-of-date lists.

The long-term storage of data allows Wine-Searcher to offer detailed reports and market analysis including current and historical trends. This data can be packed on a global or regional scale for multinationals and other clients with a broader sales focus. It can also be pinned down to a single product, sold by a single merchant.