Christie’s is poised to open a boutique wine shop in Rockefeller Center, a surprise move that got an assist from state lawmakers — and which could pave the way for a comeback in high-end booze for the auctioneer, The Post has learned.
The posh auction house aims to open the shop later this year inside of a 500-square-foot space carved out of its headquarters on West 49th Street. The storefront’s entry at 20 Rockefeller Plaza is flanked by display windows advertising auctions of blue-chip artworks from the likes of Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat.
That’s after New York legislators passed a law last month that allowed Christie’s to sidestep Prohibition-era rules that prevent wine stores from also being wine makers. The issue is that Christie’s is owned by French billionaire Francois Pinault who also owns nine vineyards including Chateau Latour in Bordeaux.
“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 told The Post in a statement.
The store “will focus on connecting people to the world of fine wine, collecting, and Christie’s,” Montefinise added.
Indeed, insiders say the new shop could help Christie’s grow its wine auction business — which decades ago had been the world’s largest but which now, with $89 million in global revenues, trails Acker, archrival Sotheby’s and Zachy’s.
“They’re not Sotheby’s right now, but they’re not standing still either,” said Daniel Posner, owner 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 represent it in Albany this year on the issue, according to public data. It specifically lobbied State Sen. Elizabeth Krueger (D-Manhattan) and Assembly member Tony Simone (D-Manhattan) who sponsored the necessary bills, public records show.
The legislation enabled Christie’s to sidestep the same obscure rule enforced by the New York State Liquor Authority that cost Eataly’s wine shop in Chelsea a $500,000 fine in 2014 and forced celebrity chef Mario Batali and his business partners Joe and Lydia Bastianich to shut it down for six months.
Christie’s also has been working other angles to make its Rockefeller Center booze shop happen — including buying a wine store in the Bronx in 2024. That’s partly because state regulations require auctioneers to partner with a licensed retailer.
Sotheby’s was the first major auctioneer to buy a wine store in 2008, allowing it to keep more of its auction proceeds. Christie’s, meanwhile, long has been forced to conduct its wine auctions with multiple retail partners — including its auctioneering rival Zachy’s.
The Christie’s shop in the Bronx, located at 841 Barreto St. in Hunts Point, is inside a warehouse building. It’s mostly an e-commerce business but there is some wine available for purchase, the company said.
Christie’s has applied to transfer the Bronx store’s liquor license to the Rockefeller Center location. The transfer needs the SLA’s permission and for Gov. Kathy Hochul to sign the bill for Christie’s.
Some industry players are miffed that the $6.2 billion auctioneer used its clout to secure an exemption that’s unavailable to ordinary wine store 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 mentioned by name in the legislation.
“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 said.
Christie’s set a record last year when it brought in $28.8 million selling 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, including Chateau Latour and wines from California and Oregon.
“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,” said liquor license attorney 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 happened approximately 50 times — about once every two years since Prohibition ended — usually when there is a greater economic benefit to the state.
In this case, Christie’s won over all but a handful of lawmakers who voted against moving the Bronx store to Rockefeller Center, among 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 told The Post.
Oenophiles pointed out that it’s the worst time ever to open a store with wine sales at 60-year lows as more people imbibe less and wine in particular.
“By proactively investing in wine,” Montefinise said, “we are looking to expand our presence in the critical US market.”
