That is very unlikely, the most popular price points in America are $12-$20 in retail, do they think those wines are special occasion wines? I think the average consumer understands the difference between Meiomi and Shafer as they do Crocs and Gucci.
You get these places that offer an experience to anyone for a charge and people are upset. “Tasting should be free!”
So you have Burgundy where lots of Domaines give you a great experience for free, but people are upset because you can’t get an appointment anymore unless you are ITB or know somebody.
Oh, I understand what sells pretty well after spending nearly 20 years ITB working everything from retail all the way through importing. Perhaps I misunderstood your point about high prices being the reason for supposed declining wine sales.
How much do you get to drink? That’s a $60
champagne and a $350 red.
My first winery visits were to places like Mondavi and BV in the early 90s. Can’t remember if we had to pay but it was nominal at most. Even years later it was still possible to just go driving through the Russian River area and stop at a place that had a “wine tasting” sign out front and taste for free. No crowds. Just talking and drinking with the farmer. Moved away from California about 10 years later. Curious if it’s still possible to drop in and do casual tastings for free anywhere in CA these days. Not that I want to do that, just wondering how much the whole situation has changed.
ROI
Get it any way you can.
I’m sure they will book quite a few of those.
I remember cruising around with Walter Massa in his little jeep when he was backing up through a turn on a hillside and we almost rolled. My colleague actually started to jump out. Massa just kept on like it was any other day explaining that soon the opposing hillside would soon all be planted to Timorasso. I doubt Shafer visitors will get a similar hillside experience no matter how much they pay. Some things money can’t buy.
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Well, being driven up and down the slopes of the Mosel by Johannes Selbach, or Leitz through his Rheingau vineyards is pretty… exciting 
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Napa County started requiring tasting fees 25+ years ago, as I recall, to reduce the amount of drunk driving by reducing the number of places people would stop. There was some grandfathering of wineries at the time. I don’t know if the grandfathering was eliminated or everyone decided to get on the bandwagon.
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tbh there came a point when it was pretty much drudgery visiting vineyards after importing for some years. Plus, I was born on a ranch so I’ve seen a fair bit of farmland. But, indeed there are some pretty special places I would happily visit again and again. Never visited the Mosel but it really looks stunning. I love the steep valley of the Valais. Northern Rhone. Cerbaiona knocked me back with its spectacular setting even though there were no steeply pitched hills.
Yabbut their hillside experience will be select, amirite?
It took me all of 10 seconds to delete that email this morning when I saw the subject line 
Don’t know either, but my first visit to Grgich Hills was $10 in 2007, and I got to keep the glass…