Part 7: The Wine Wars: the White Coat Entrepreneur and the Vineyard that Isn’t

A Surgeon, a Carcinogen, and the Audacity of Agricultural Cosplay

While the issues around what I have called “The Wine Wars” seem local, they are anything but. This is not NIMBYism. This is a story about whether one couple with enough money and gobs of persistence can fundamentally alter the character of a historic community, and whether the regulatory system will let them dress up a commercial entertainment venture in the borrowed clothes of agriculture to do it. It is happening in New York’s scenic Hudson Valley, and if it can happen here, it can happen anywhere. And it is.

There are many issues, but today I want to talk about four of them: the legitimacy of Ed and Cheri Williams' claim to be farmers and what that means for the tax base and property values; public safety; the pattern of behavior that reveals what this project has always been about; and the product they propose to market.

Dr. Edwin Williams is a facial plastic surgeon. Not a part-time surgeon. A full-time, board-certified, dual-specialty surgeon who operates the Williams Center, a 22…