High-End Wine Shop Finally Opens New UES Location In Lenox Hill

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — It's time for wine.

Upscale wine shop Millesima USA has finally opened their new flagship location after ditching their smaller home a few blocks up the street.

Neighborhood sommeliers will be thrilled to find that the new shop, at 1257 Second Ave. near the corner of East 66th Street, is about 5,200 square feet, or nearly double the size of the old store.

The store was originally slated to open last fall, but didn't ultimately open until last month.

"This move will let us expand our horizons and be a part of our customers' wine journeys," said Hortense Bernard, the global managing director for Millesima USA, in a press release about the new spot last year.

According to a statement from general manager Fabrizio Germano on the company's website, the new store aims to be "more than their neighborhood bottle shop—we want the store to be the wine library where they can come to discover new references, revisit their favorites, and gather to discuss wine."

The larger space will allow the mostly online store to not only expand their in-person offerings, but to also showcase special fine wines.

"We took inspiration from old-world France staying true to Millesima's luxury fine wine branding," said Ella Birnbaum, creative and managing director of the firm behind the new store, Malherbe New York. "The space will be more than just a fine wine retailer, but an experience, where the consumer can embark on a journey and discover wines from around the world."

The New York Times says it's worth a visit, if only just to admire the retail design.

"Even if you’re not in the market for premier cru Burgundies, well-aged first-growth Bordeaux, tête de cuvée Champagnes and sought-after Italian wines priced into the thousands and stacked to the ceiling," said the longtime New York Times food and wine writer, Florence Fabricant, "it’s worth visiting this section to view it, like an oenophile tourist, as you might a collection of fine art. And they’re all for sale."

Family-own Millesima was founded in Bordeaux in 1983 as a fine wine mail-order merchant — and says they are the only online fine wine retailer in the United States. The company opened their original Upper East Side shop on Second Avenue near East 72nd Street in 2006.