Josh, I didn’t mean to suggest that all wineries that build a following do so based off of casual fans. There definitely are wineries that consitantly produce excellent wines (in the eyes of wine experts) and attract a following of wine “students”. It really isn’t puzzling that a top rated wine would command higher prices.
What did puzzle me was how some wineries produced wines that consistanly got mid/high 80’s score in Wine Spectator and Wine Advocate, but still managed to charge $50-$100/bottle. Silver Oak is one example. Cakebread is another example. What I noticed is that casual fans tend to prefer these wines. So while they may not get huge scores by the wine experts, they do have a broader appeal.
Of course marketing and exclisivity, etc can also play a part. But my main point was that wineries can be geared to attract different audiences. For some, that audience may be the wine connoissures. For others, the audience may be casual fans.
