During a December Democratic presidential debate, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D–MA) called out Pete Buttigieg for hosting a fundraising event in a Californian “wine cave” decorated with a chandelier of 1,500 Swarovski crystals.

"So the mayor just recently had a fundraiser that was held in a wine cave full of crystals and served $900-a-bottle wine," Warren said at the time, according to CNN.

Two months later, critics say another wine cave convened in spirit in Charleston, South Carolina, where seven Democratic presidential hopefuls debated on February 25 ahead of the state’s February 29 primary. Aside from allocations for the campaigns and media, a guaranteed ticket could only be obtained by becoming a sponsor of the debate, which came with a price tag ranging from $1,750 to $3,200, according to local news station Live 5 News.

"This is something that the average person doesn’t usually get to go to," said Charleston County Democratic party chair Colleen Condon, according to Live 5 News. "The Gaillard [Center] is only so big and this is something that is just a hot ticket from across the country. These kinds of events really are set up for sponsors and things like that."

Following the publication of this report, South Carolina Democratic Party communications director Greer Schneider reached out to Teen Vogue to clarify the situation.

"Individual tickets to the debate were not for sale. The South Carolina Democratic Party gave our allotment of almost 400 tickets to community leaders, representatives, candidates, and super volunteers — at no cost," she wrote in an email. "Separately, the SCDP offered sponsorship package opportunities, as it has done in previous years, for several events leading up to the First in the South Primary, including tables for the First in the South Dinner, tables for the Spouses Luncheon, tickets for off-site Debate Watch and the Debate After Party. Every dollar raised at these events will go towards electing Democrats up and down the ballot in South Carolina in November. The Live 5 News story was misleading, and we were in touch with them at the time. The local chair has since clarified her statement, but, in summary, the Charleston County Democratic Party was not involved in debate ticket distribution."

Allegations about the supposed price of admission prompted the nickname for the event on Twitter. Many supporters of Senator Bernie Sanders (I–Vt.) used the hashtag #WineCaveDebate, which picked up on the essence of Warren’s prior criticism of Buttigieg, but with a broader target in mind. Schneider took issue with a tweet included in this report, citing inaccuracies about the admission process.

“The $1750 tickets were actually for the nose-bleed seats. The higher-end seats were $3200,” wrote Jacobin magazine staff writer Hadas Thier on Twitter. “Thank you DNC and CBS for the #WineCaveDebate.” In her email, Schneider called this tweet's claim "100% wrong."

Sanders himself was critical of the situation in a post-debate interview with MSNBC. Spotlighting the price point, Sanders said, “So to get a ticket to the debate, you had to be fairly wealthy. Most working people that I know don’t spend $1,700 to get a ticket to a debate, and that’s problematic. But that’s what the DNC did.”

While Sanders's comments are at odds with the situation as described by the South Carolina Democratic Party, high costs for access to debates has already been a party of the 2020 race. This was the 10th Democratic debate of the 2020 election season and in line with the others when it comes to price points as set by the DNC, according to the New York Times. Other debates have had similarly high costs. DNC communications director Xochitl Hinojosa took to Twitter to explain how tickets to the South Carolina debate were allocated.