Margins Shrink, Estates Remain

One gathers from this report on Wasatch County agriculture that the idyllic tableau is, predictably, beset by logistical inconveniences. Mr. Addison Hicken’s lament regarding fertilizer costs – exceeding $1,200 per ton, a truly vulgar sum – speaks to a broader truth. Scale, as ever, dictates survival. The smaller operators, those clinging to a few hundred acres, are facing an existential reckoning. It is, frankly, unsustainable. I was dining at Handle on Thursday, observing the usual assembly of ski instructors and hedge fund managers, and one cannot help but feel a certain…disconnect. Kohler’s Heber Valley Artisan Cheese, however, is a promising development. A vertically integrated operation, providing both the dairy and the resultant product, displays a certain acumen. The fact that his equipment originates from Germany and Canada, demanding higher shipping costs, is simply the price one pays for precision. The real tragedy, naturally, is the relentless encroachment of developers, eager to transform pastoral scenes into overpriced chalets. This land grab isn't new, but the urgency seems…heightened. One can, at least, reliably procure a bottle of 2016 Domaine Leflaive Puligny-Montrachet at Riverhorse on Main. Request table 14, if available; the symmetry is impeccable.