(WSJ) - AMERICA HAS NEVER been overly fond of its intellectuals. Ralph Waldo Emerson took note of this fact in a speech made at Harvard almost 200 years ago: "The mind of a country, taught to aim at low objects, eats upon itself." Even today, anyone with a higher degree or a well-articulated belief risks being called an "elitist." The same seems to hold true in the American wine world, where an impassioned and knowledgeable oenophile is—often as not—simply labeled a "snob."