The Incredible Shrinking Winery

More than five years, three lawyers, two engineers, and one garage — and all the Williams want is a dinner party. Or so they say now.

There is a moment in every long-running dispute when the arguments become so contorted, so stripped of their original ambition, that you have to step back and ask: what are we even fighting about anymore?

We have arrived at that moment in the Fox Hill Estate & Vineyard saga.

After five years of applications, two attorneys, an engineering firm, multiple public hearings, a ten-day public comment extension, a parade of neighbor letters, at least two revised project narratives, a surprise announcement of previously undisclosed wine production in a residential garage, and what can only be described as the most expensive game of municipal telephone in Columbia County history - the Williams have arrived at what their representatives now describe as the sum total of their ambitions.

Are you ready?

Twelve people. By invitation only. Maybe five or six times a year.

That’s it. That’s the project. That is what all of this has been about.

If you believe that, I have a 53.7-acre estate with a stone façad…