I had a conversation with a sommelier once, the son of a good friend of mine who took classes to become certified. He told me that unless you are collecting estate bottled wines of the very highest quality ($50 per bottle or more), and planning to "keep" them for a few years until they are "ready to drink," an electric wine cellar is not necessary or worth the expense. If you are still interested in getting one of these devices, you need to make sure that the one you select is designed in such a way that it prevent any vibration from reaching the wine in storage, because that would be harmful to the wine. The best system for storing wine of very high quality is to have a room, about the size of a walk-in closet or larger, and to condition in air in the room with a special device that maintains the temperature and humidity at optimal levels. Such an arrangement would eliminate the concern about vibration. The other concern is noise. Some of these devices are noisy, and you do not want them in a dining room or family room for that reason, even if they are housed in a nice cabinet suitable for a formal or semi-formal setting. Aside from the question of storing very fine wines until it is ready to drink, another reason for electrified storage is so that wine is at the optimal temperature for drinking, which means old fashioned wine cellar temperature for red wine (I think, about 65 degrees Fahrenheit), and bit colder for white table wine, and very cold for bubbly. If you live in a private home, you can probably find storage that approximates optimal temperature somewhere in your house. So, unless your husband is a purist, my advice is to get him a case or two of his favorite wine. If he's a purist, you should let him select the storage system that he wants.

Got mine at Home Depot. It was a Magic Chef, they still have it in the stores (but I don't see it online) but the name has changed. They also offer a wine fridge model but the one I got has glass shelves not wire shelves for wine bottles. I spent $300 (on sale) I saw them recently for more $$; sorry I forget how much. It is Stainless steel, has a glass door and looks great. The down side is that it only gets down to 39 degrees, which we are okay with, but it sounds like you are looking for something that will cool them down much more. That said, a quick bout in the freezer would do the trick, so I guess it depends on what you are willing to spend!

If you go to the cellartracker or wine berserker forums, they are very high on the Eurocave. I initially bought a Eurocave, but the first one they sent out was damaged and returned by the shipper. They sent a replacement that also arrived damaged (it looked like the shipper dropped it on the corner of something and it had a hole poked through the side). Because two damaged units were sent to us, we canceled the order. Also, the cabinet maker was scheduled to complete the install the following week and there wasn't time to wait for another unit to be shipped. Despite the problems with the two damaged units being sent, Wine Enthusiasts customer service was pretty good; although, it took them 3 weeks and multiple phone calls to process the cancellation and return the money to my credit cart. They were however, very friendly, apologetic, and accommodating every time I called. The benefits of the Eurocave seemed like they would be low vibration (vibrations can harm wine), humidity control, 3 sided cooling (more uniform), quiet. I don't know if these claims are true in such a small unit. We instead went with a sub-zero that the local Pacific Sales could ship to us the next day. My wife is happier with the sub-zero because she was able to get the cabinet maker to make a custom cabinet face for the unit so the wine cabinet looks very nice. The subzero seems to be a good unit and does most of the things the Eurocave does. For example, the subzero has two evaporators to control the humidity in each zone. It doesn't however have the display that tells me what the humidity is. That said, for an undercounter unit, a Eurocave or a Subzero is probably overkill. You most likely don't get the real benefits of these units until you get to their larger units. I have heard good things about the u-line, so that one is definitely worth looking at.

Our plan is to have a fully developed basement with wine cellar, but we're not sure when we can complete this. We can keep wine stored in a cool place until then but regardless if wine cellar is done immediately or down the road we would like to a the wine fridge in kitchen for immediate and short term consumption. We drink more red than white but with a wine fridge can start to enjoy whites more frequently. After reading above posts I'm not going to do the wine rack as we have so much window light and a sky light that would affect the reds stored in a rack. Here's another related question: we can get a 15" Subzero wine fridge (unclaimed order that salesperson wants to blow out of his store) for the same price as a 24" Marvel. Although SZ is superior and the price is incredibly low , I"m leaning towards the 24". Thoughts? Anyone have a Marvel wine fridge? Thanks to all for their responses on this!