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The Latest Home Trend: Wine Cellars

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Over his 20-year career as president and owner of Washington Valley Cellars in Martinsville, N.J., Jay Rosen has built more than 500 wine cellars—many of them on the Main Line. And no matter the location, the one constant among his projects was to hone in exclusively on the man of the house.

But that’s no longer the case. 

“Recently, we’ve seen a sharp increase in women interested in building wine rooms into their homes, and most of the men who hire us make sure their wives are heavily involved in the planning and design process,” says Rosen. “In the last five years, I’ve built more wine cellars for women than I did in the previous 15 years combined.” 

Scot Ziskind agrees. “More women than ever want to build a wine collection,” says the owner of ZipCo Wine Cellar Services in Philadelphia

Rosen had a client who needed to convince her husband, a craft-beer fanatic, that a wine cellar was a viable option. So they compromised, and a part of the cellar was dedicated to his brews. “Women have a clear idea of what they want and how they want it to look—and it usually includes unique tiling and lighting,” Rosen says.

And both men and women want a cool space where they can entertain friends. Wyndmoor’s Nancy Evans got into wine through her husband. “Now we both really enjoy it,” says Evans, who has a 300-bottle wine closet. “We travel to Paso Robles, Calif., to wine-taste every summer.”