Exclusive | Christie’s to open posh wine store in – Business News
Christie’s is poised to open a boutique wine store in Rockefeller Center, a shock transfer that acquired an help from state lawmakers — and which may pave the way in which for a comeback in high-end booze for the auctioneer, The Post has realized.
The posh public sale home goals to open the store later this yr inside of a 500-square-foot space carved out of its headquarters on West forty ninth Street. The storefront’s entry at 20 Rockefeller Plaza is flanked by show home windows promoting auctions of blue-chip artworks from the likes of Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat.
That’s after New York legislators handed a law final month that allowed Christie’s to sidestep Prohibition-era guidelines that stop wine shops from additionally being wine makers. The concern is that Christie’s is owned by French billionaire Francois Pinault who additionally owns 9 vineyards together with Chateau Latour in Bordeaux.
Christi’s is planning to open a wine store at this location on West forty ninth St. at 20 Rockefeller Plaza. Ashton Jones/NY Post
“Christie’s took part in a significant legal process specifically to ensure that consumers are protected and everything is proper and in the spirit of the law,” Christie’s spokesperson Angela Montefinise informed The Post in a assertion.
The store “will focus on connecting people to the world of fine wine, collecting, and Christie’s,” Montefinise added.
Indeed, insiders say the new store may help Christie’s grow its wine public sale business — which a long time in the past had been the world’s largest however which now, with $89 million in world revenues, trails Acker, archrival Sotheby’s and Zachy’s.
“They’re not Sotheby’s right now, but they’re not standing still either,” mentioned Daniel Posner, proprietor of Grapes The Wine Store in White Plains, NY. “Planting a flag in Rockefeller Center, surrounded by bankers and lawyers with money to spend? That’s a savvy move for a house that needs a win.”
Christie’s tapped high-powered lobbyists from Greenberg Traurig to characterize it in Albany this yr on the difficulty, in accordance to public information. It particularly lobbied State Sen. Elizabeth Krueger (D-Manhattan) and Assembly member Tony Simone (D-Manhattan) who sponsored the required payments, public data show.
The $6.2 billion public sale home sells paintings, jewellery, wine and different luxurious items. Ashton Jones/NY Post
The laws enabled Christie’s to sidestep the identical obscure rule enforced by the New York State Liquor Authority that value Eataly’s wine store in Chelsea a $500,000 high quality in 2014 and compelled superstar chef Mario Batali and his business companions Joe and Lydia Bastianich to shut it down for six months.
Christie’s additionally has been working different angles to make its Rockefeller Center booze store occur — together with shopping for a wine store in the Bronx in 2024. That’s partly as a result of state rules require auctioneers to companion with a licensed retailer.
Sotheby’s was the primary main auctioneer to buy a wine store in 2008, permitting it to keep more of its public sale proceeds. Christie’s, in the meantime, long has been compelled to conduct its wine auctions with a number of retail companions — together with its auctioneering rival Zachy’s.
The Christie’s store in the Bronx, positioned at 841 Barreto St. in Hunts Point, is inside a warehouse building. It’s largely an e-commerce business however there’s some wine obtainable for buy, the company mentioned.
The public sale home posted this discover on the door of its proposed wine store. Ashton Jones/NY Post
Christie’s has utilized to switch the Bronx store’s liquor license to the Rockefeller Center location. The switch wants the SLA’s permission and for Gov. Kathy Hochul to signal the invoice for Christie’s.
Some industry gamers are miffed that the $6.2 billion auctioneer used its clout to secure an exemption that’s unavailable to abnormal wine store house owners. Justin Loeb, who owns SipNYC wine store on the Upper East Side, ripped the “the absolute secrecy and deep political hypocrisy behind how this happened,” noting that Christie’s wasn’t talked about by identify in the laws.
Christie’s is owned by French billionaire Francois Pinault who additionally owns 9 vineyards together with Chateau Latour in Bordeaux. AFP through Getty Images
“Allowing a well-funded, hyper-connected global conglomerate to completely avoid the laws that every small mom-and-pop must follow isn’t just unfair — it proves that in New York, the rules only apply if you aren’t big enough to rewrite them,” Loeb mentioned.
Christie’s set a file final yr when it introduced in $28.8 million promoting the personal cellar of billionaire William I. Koch. Its US wine auctions totaled $42 million in 2025. Christie’s has agreed not to sell vintages that Pinault’s company Group Artemis produces, together with Chateau Latour and wines from California and Oregon.
Celebrity chef Mario Batali and his business companions in Eataly have been fined $500,000 by the NY State Liquor Authority for not disclosing that they owned a winery in Italy. WireImage
“It’s certainly not the norm to get the New York legislature to carve out your store from a law that is supposed to apply to everyone,” mentioned liquor license lawyer Max Bookman. “The laws exist to protect the little guy to make sure that wine stores are not taken over by large alcohol brands.”
Still, Bookman added that such carveouts have occurred roughly 50 instances — about as soon as each two years since Prohibition ended — often when there’s a higher financial benefit to the state.
The NY SLA additionally required Batali and his companions to close their Eataly wine store for six months. Astrid Stawiarz
In this case, Christie’s received over all however a handful of lawmakers who voted in opposition to shifting the Bronx store to Rockefeller Center, amongst them Assemblymen Ari Brown (R-LI) and Angelo Morenelo (R-Niagara Falls).
“If the state believes these liquor laws are outdated, then the Legislature should reform them fairly across the board for everyone, not create special exceptions for one specific property in Manhattan while small business owners everywhere else are left behind,” Brown informed The Post.
Oenophiles identified that it’s the worst time ever to open a store with wine gross sales at 60-year lows as more people imbibe much less and wine in explicit.
“By proactively investing in wine,” Montefinise mentioned, “we are looking to expand our presence in the critical US market.”
