Label of Elegance

Tracy McGillivary, at home in Bethesda, holds a bottle of Silver Oak cabernet sauvignon, an earlier vintage of which she and her husband were drinking when they got engaged. (By Mary Lou Foy For The Washington Post)

Indeed, a Gallup poll conducted in July found that though beer is still the beverage of choice for most Americans -- 40 percent said they prefer it -- 34 percent said they would rather have wine. That gap has narrowed in recent years, according to the Gallup News Service.

Crawford said he is seeing more people turn small closets into storage rooms for about 500 bottles. "You can just get some racking and put it in a corner of a room," he said. "You can dedicate a room to it."

Some people have found ways to build it themselves.

Gray Mosby, president of the wine distribution company Brightberry Imports, chronicled his building of a 660-bottle wine cellar in his Arlington townhouse in a show on the Do It Yourself Network. Though the network paid for much of his project, he said, a 50-case, 600-bottle cellar can be built for less than $2,500.

"If you're someone who has a full tool chest who knows how to use everything in it, it's not going to be a problem for you," Mosby said.

Storing wine can be done on an even tighter budget. Small wine refrigerators have become more affordable, said Farrell, the product specialist with Wine Enthusiast. An apartment dweller can fit one in a kitchen.

"That's become a very big business," he said. "It used to be if you wanted something like that in your home, you'd have to spend $1,000 or more. Now they come in all sizes, from six bottles to 25 bottles. They sell so well that it makes sense to carry them in all sizes."

And if you think a wine cellar can only be in a basement, you're wrong.

Vintage Wine Rooms, for example, has proposed building wine lockers in the clubhouse of a condominium community in Virginia, said owner Joe Duffus. Other cellar designers said they have built cellars or storage rooms inside condo units.

Lorne Greene, 37, and his wife, Emily, opted for a smaller storage area on the main level of their Bethesda home, which they are tearing down and rebuilding. Tired of going out and buying whatever wine they needed for an evening of entertaining, they decided they wanted longer-term storage. So they commissioned Meridian Homes to build one for about 250 bottles. That was adequate, they said, because they do not consider themselves wine collectors, though they enjoy drinking it. The area will go between the dining room and the family room; a glass door will make it visible from both rooms.

"For us, what makes sense is something more moderate-size on the main level, someplace to store wine properly and get to easily," Lorne Greene said.