So I lectured at San Angelo State U today in West Texas. We repaired for the evening to "In Vino Veritas," a combination wine store/wine bar. We go in, and there are half a dozen men in cowboy hats enjoying the vintages--I learn they're in town for the "Roping Fiesta," in which, to quote the local paper:

top ropers from around the world converge in San Angelo for the San Angelo Stock Show and Rodeo Association's Wrangler Roping Fiesta.... (New to this year's lineup is the double mugging competition, in which competitors work in teams of two to rope and tie down a steer.)

At the end of the bar, a VERY Texan dude with a burly beard--I'm not making any of this up--lectures me about how it's absurd to drink a decent claret unless it's aerated first. Then he tells me the criteria for what constitutes an authentic honkey tonk.

The owner's name is Steve. His store is filled with $100 vintages with their "Wine Spectator" scores marked on the bottle; and, some of them, tags reading "Steve's Picks." I remark how ironic it is that liberals from the East like me are always excoriated by Texas Republican types for being wine snipping snobs. His indelible response:

Most liberals have really shitty taste in wine...