Who is John Galt?

So I already told you about the best way to meet French people, and I followed my own advice the other day and quite an amazing thing happened. Yesterday, I went to meet my new friend Xavier in Beaune. He doesn't speak English and I don't speak French so it was destined to be a spectacular and awkward day. I was in my element, to say the least. We had about five billion espressos and when I was so jacked up that I was actually scared that he would offer me another espresso and that I would have to accept out of sheer politeness, he said 'Allez' (let's go)... I almost fainted out of excitement. During or all-too-long coffee, I learned that Xavier is a cooper (barrel maker). He took me to the Musee de Vin and explained to me all about wine making and barrel making. And of course by 'he explained' I mean that I nodded along and said an awful lot of 'Oui, Oui' while drawing my own conclusions.
After that he took me south of Beaune to a little village called La Rochepot where we had a delictable lunch (I had Boeufe Bourgignon) with a bottle of Santenay 1er Cru. Following lunch we wizzed up to the chateau and had a brief tour. We climbed to the top of the tower and I wanted to cry a little bit because the view of Burgundy was so beautiful. I felt kind of weird because there are quite a few people I would rather have shared that experience with. On the other hand, I never would have been there without the help of my trusty new companion. The more you know, the more you realize that you don't know anything.
We departed from the chateau and stopped off at Xavier's house where he bestowed two gifts upon me- a bottle of Creme de Cassis and a bottle of 1984 Corton Rouge. He really wanted to give me a bottle from the year I was born (which he indicated by saying 'La maman' and holding his hands in front of his belly as if he were pregnant) but apparently it was one of his favorite vintages and he drank it all. We grabbed a bottle of 1993 Corton Rouge and headed back to Beaune. I was desperate for a degustation so we ambled into the caves and tasted a million bottles of wine for 10euro. I win!
We viewed the Hospice de Beaune after that... followed by a little Corton Rouge. I insisted that we have a drink at the pub where we met and it was actually quite fun. All of the old guys there were transfixed by the sight of a young American woman so I played the part as much as possible. I may or may not have been loud, slightly obnoxious, and terribly witty. I bought them each a scratch ticket and insisted that they scratch them with American coins. They saw my passport in my bag and asked to see it, which I obliged. They really got a kick out of the fact that everything is also written in French. However amusing it was, it was also a bit sad. I realized that none of these people of varying ages and faculties had ever left France, or Beaune for that matter, and probably never would. That made my journey feel all the more important to me and I resolved to try to enjoy myself more in my surroundings.
Who is John Galt?