Livre d'Or

It sounds to me like the vineyard tour organizers were pressured by their insurers to impose unreasonable safety precautions. That's nearly always the way with people who deal with the public, insurance companies don't understand risk trade-offs at all, they just want everything to be as low risk as possible.

But in general your approach sounds really sensible, you wear a helmet when you're cycling in busy traffic but not just to cycle short distances. I agree that a lot of the problem with helmets is finding somewhere to put them once you get off your bike, they're necessarily bulky. Maybe locking your helmet to your bike is the right answer.