My only experience is with smaller countertop wine coolers, but one I used did manage to keep about a 10°F difference between the topmost and bottommost shelves. Not divided into neat zones though; the middle shelves are simply between the two temperatures, the lower the colder. I've never found the standard temperature rules for red/pink/white wine to necessarily be the best though, with for example, shiraz tasting better when served cooler than cabernet even though they're both red, so the variable temperatures proved useful. Some wine coolers work like most refrigerators - they use a compressor. Others don't use a compressor, which have the side benefits of being silent and making more efficient use of space. Both varieties can be made to cool different compartments to different temperatures if designed carefully. You may want to crosspost this question on the GW wine forum too.

The wife and working partner of the tile installer was here yesterday and loved the tile and said it's not out of date. They've been installing a lot of it lately. I know she said this to make me feel better: "With that crackle, it's got kind of a subway look anyway." And the tile designer was very enthusiastic about it too. The photos don't do it justice; it really is pretty. But here's something we didn't expect: the installers are booked to (or through) July!!! But she said they're doing mostly bathrooms, so there might be an open day that comes up where they can do a backsplash. She said her husband will lay the tile in one day and she'll come back and grout it in less than an hour.

I've ordered my cabinets - Bodbyn Gray. I have about 8" of filler space on the each wall surrounding my sink window and was planning to hack a wine/mug cubby similar to the Horda open cabinets pictured HERE so go in that filler space on each side. The Ikea Horda cabinets are is too wide for my space and I also don't like that the sides and shelves are so thin - I think it looks cheap. So I was planning to make some by cutting down wall cabinets to give me a 5" width interior which I think will fit coffee mugs on one side and wine stuff (our always open BOTA box, some glasses and maybe a few bottles at the very top. I have a good color match for the Bodbyn gray, and was planning to add a painted a face frame to cover the front edges of the wall cabinet and the front sides of the interior shelves. The painted wood added to the front would add some depth - but it might make sense to build it out to about the same thickness as the door fronts on the surrounding cabinets anyway? The interior of the cubby's would still be white, but the adjoining cabinets will have glass fronts with the white interior showing through, so I'm hoping the white interior of the cubby cabinets will not look odd. The frames are $30 each (12" width which would be cut back) and shelves are cheap so the cost would probably be far less than the $60 for the Horda. I was hoping to use these Low Profile Shelf Supports so shelf supports would not be visible - one benefit of the Horda version. I hope they will fit the Ikea shelf holes! I'm just wondering if anyone sees any flaws in my plan - or if you think the white interiors will look funny. I could always cover the interiors and shelves with paintable veneer or just try to paint them directly, but I'd rather not make this any harder than I have to!

Hopefully someone with more knowledge will contribute on brands/models but I can tell you that a lot of the price differences that you're seeing are due to 1) built-in vs free standing 2) silent operation vs normal compressor noise 3) dual zone that are *really dual zone. Just like fridges, built-ins cost more than free standing because of the venting needs of running successfully for years in an enclosed environment. You mention undercounter so this might be important to you. When I was looking, I read lots and lots of reports about people putting free standing units into their cabinetry and then being unhappy with either/both performance and reliability. Maybe this has changed since I looked but I can't imagine successfully getting warranty service for a freestanding unit when the tech comes and it's obviously built in to your cabinets. The silent operation can be important to you if you have an open floorplan or if you're serious about your wine and don't want any sediment disturbed by a compressor that causes vibrations in the racks. This decision will rule out a bunch. If you don't know, look up your wines to find out what temps they need for storage. Sometimes units that advertise dual zone have a very narrow difference between the zones and if your wines need to be kept farther apart in temperature, then you can rule out another bunch. Also some units have a SS door (or wood finish) with plain metal sides, again like fridges, because they're meant to go between cabs so the sides are never seen. If yours will be on the end of a run, you might want to have a finished side that looks nicer. I did buy a unit a few years ago for another house and ended up with a single zone as our house temp was cold enough to have reds just on the counter. Mine was a compressor, free standing unit from Summit. I was very happy with it for my budget but you could definitely hear the compressor kick on and off. I put the white wines at the top (slightly warmer) and the beers on the bottom (slightly colder) which worked ok for us. cheers