What started as a personal anniversary trip to Italy quickly turned into a meaningful opportunity for our Florida Market Sales Rep, Austin Schmitzer, to reconnect with a few Dialect producers firsthand. From Montefalco to Sicily and the slopes of Etna, the trip offered a deeper look into the vineyards, wines, and people behind the portfolio… and also plenty of unforgettable food, hospitality, and cellar tastings along the way.
We caught up with Austin to hear more about the producers he visited, the wines that stood out, and what it was like experiencing these regions in person.
(left to right: Austin & Marco Iuppa | Austin & Giampaolo Tabarrini | Austin, Sydni, Luiga & Angela of Barone Sergio)
Q: You recently traveled to Italy on a personal trip and had the opportunity to visit a few Dialect producers along the way. How did those visits come together?
A: It was originally a personal vacation that we had kind of been putting off for a while and it was for our 10 year anniversary. If I didn’t hold this role, we would still be going to Italy and doing various wine related things because that’s just what we enjoy. But the connections I’ve made with Dialect definitely made for an even better experience.
We were originally going to just do Central/Northern Italy like Umbria, Tuscany, maybe Emilia Romagna… and then we decided to add Sicily because we wanted a little more sunny, fair weather. And then, when Luiga and Angela from Barone Sergio came at the end of March for their market visit here, we were at Bar Chinchilla doing an event and they were talking to Sydni my wife, about our Italy trip coming up, and they were like “You NEED to do Sicily.” So, they kind of convinced her into it. But, Giampaolo Tabarrini is the first producer I’d met and I thought it would be a shame to take my first trip to Italy and not see him, so we decided to start the trip with Tabarrini in Montefalco and then continued the trip by flying south to Sicily where we visited with Barone Sergio and Iuppa.
Q: What was it like seeing the wineries and vineyards in person after working with these wines professionally? Did visiting the vineyards change your perspective at all?
A: These are small wineries and the big realization was… these producers really do everything with the least amount of people in comparison to some of the larger names and wineries I’ve visited. And now really being able to speak out in the market about that – you know a lot of the selling points I talk about are that these wines are a real bare-handed labor of love, from farmer-first operations, so I already knew that – but getting to see that in person gave an extra sense that these producers are really getting things done the hard way, like really, they are doing it the hard way. So, it reinforced my appreciation for that and now I feel like this trip gave me a sort of stamp of approval on those points that make our wines really special.
Q: You visited Barone Sergio and Iuppa in Sicily — did each visit have a totally different feel?
A: Landscape-wise, they are totally different. Iuppa is in Milo so that’s on the eastern slope of the volcano and they are well above sea level. It’s very high and very scenic. That slope of Etna is the rainiest, so it’s very green and it’s also the windiest. And, small winery and operation.
And then Barone Sergio all the way south in Noto, it’s flat, it’s very dry, it’s super sunny. My wife and I were driving around and we felt a little bit like we were driving around southern California. It’s not very lush green, it feels a bit like a desert climate, very sandy. But their property is massive. Over 100 hectares, but only 10 are actually allocated to vines for wine. The rest are for growing things like lemons, olives… and other people use their land for tomatoes and things like that so they are like the art of agriculture itself. They are farmers first and foremost.
Q: Were there any experimental bottlings, cellar samples, or local-only wines that really stood out?
A: I got to taste new wines from Tabarrini, and new wines from all of the producers, but it was cool to taste wines that had just been put in the tank, or just put in the barrel. It was interesting to see how those taste now where they’re not anywhere near ready to be done. They’re still so fantastic and comparing that to the ones that we have in the market, it’s cool to see that they just get better and better from start to finish. And then, there were some fun wines I got to try that were a little more experimental, or wines that I don’t think they really export out to markets – so it was nice to try some of what’s only available to the more local region.
Q: What was your favorite wine discovery from the trip?
A: Probably one that we enjoyed the most was from Giampaolo Tabarrini, a Sagrantino that had been put into the tank not too long ago, and Sagrantino is notoriously known for its ripping tannins and high alcohol, so you would expect to just have like a mouthful. But this was the 2025 vintage and it was so fresh. It was showing so much fruit and it was much softer than you anticipated. Obviously so much of that is attributed to his cellar work as well but that was a pleasant surprise because his whole goal is to make Sagrantino finessed and elegant and that was a really good example of one that you wouldn’t expect to be at this point, and it already is. So you can imagine by the time it’s had all of its aging and like coming over to the States, it’s gonna be magnificent.
Q: How would you describe the hospitality and overall experience of visiting the producers firsthand?
A: The hospitality part was really cool. So again, these are small wineries – they’re not these expansive wine resorts by any means. We stayed at the winery at Tabarrini – down the hall from Giampaolo and Federica, his wife. We had breakfast with them every morning and went out to dinner every night. They were so excited to welcome us and allowed us to do as much or as little as we wanted.
Iuppa, the construction for their rooms were not done yet but we got to tour where their rooms are going to be and the views are insane. They are looking up at Etna and looking out, down the mountains, towards the sea. I think their goal to complete is by the end of this year, or maybe January – I’m not positive. So we stayed somewhere else in Catania when we were visiting Iuppa.
Barone Sergio does not have guest rooms at the winery but we did stay with Luiga at her house which was very, very fun. Unfortunately, we missed their first weekly party of the season. Starting in June, they do a big party called “Baronetto”, a weekly thing I think, so their winery becomes packed and they have this big dance party with a DJ – it’s really cool. Luiga and the winery have a great energy, so it was really fun to stay with her.
Q: What about the food and wine? Did you try anything amazing or have any really good pairings that you’re still thinking about?
A: We didn’t really get very intentional with wine and food pairings I think because, especially when we were in group settings, it was a lot of people ordering a lot of different things, so it all just kind of blurs together. But, it was interesting seeing both how the landscape of what’s on your plate can change, as we went from Rome to Umbria and then even like north to south of Sicily. Umbria was incredibly protein heavy. It’s a very big agricultural area, super green. So that’s where you’re getting like, really good beef, sausage, all that stuff. Like the best meatballs you’ll ever have, we had in Montefalco, they were so good. And then by the time you make it down to Pacchino, you’re getting a lot of seafood, a little lighter fair. Like a lot, a lot of vegetarian options over there. So, just kind of interesting to see that. We also drank progressively. Started more red in Umbria and ended up drinking more white as we traveled south.
Q: Was there a vineyard view, winery moment, or meal from the trip that you’ll never forget?
A: I think probably one of our funnest days was with Marco from Iuppa – we were with him and his girlfriend and they were taking us around Catania and it felt like we walked probably 50,000 steps. We were all hurting by the end of the night. Then he took us out to the winery the next day and spent the whole day with us. Catania was lovely, it had really good energy, it was kind of chaotic but not crazy. Obviously walkable and it was very cool to see how Etna influences that, even in an infrastructural way, like seeing parts of the city that are covered by lava, so they just kind of build more city on top of it. Everything always relates back to the volcano, it’s very cool.
Q: Did the trip leave you more excited about any particular wines currently in the portfolio?
A: Definitely Sagrantino from Tabarrini that I mentioned before, and just a testament to how he views the wines and his very fresh and finesse mindset that come with those. It was super beautiful, that early, so I’m excited for those.
One of the wines we tried at Barone Sergio, was a wine that we just received in the states while I was away, it’s a Pet Nat Moscato from them. They have historically done a dry Moscato that is still, but this was a Pet Nat one and we tried it when we were having lunch at the winery there, and it was so good, so refreshing. I actually just last week had it out at a tasting with one of my customers and it was just a hit, really, really good.
Then from Iuppa, it’s especially fun because they are such a young winery that you know every year it’s gonna be better and better and they don’t have many vintages under their belt. So, tasting stuff in the barrel across all of the SKUs was really fun to see how they are progressing as a winery. We got to try a lot of different vintages of their Etna Bianco, which was cool to see not just the progression of their winemaking, but kind of like a timestamp of what was going on that year. I feel like Etna is so special in that sense because you have this volcano that’s still going off all the time and the amount of activity varies year over year and that influence goes directly into the wine. It’s also a really cool region because it has a bit more advantage against heat, pests and molds – being that it’s windier, gets a little more rain, has more shade, which are natural deterrents to some of those things. I think it was the 2023 vintage where maybe a lot of other slopes of Etna had it a little rougher with those issues, and so we tried some whites from Iuppa from that year against other producers – and it was so good. Not to say the others were bad, but you could kind of tell that they didn’t have, like a fall off, compared with others. Their Etna Biancos were really really good, excited to have more this summer.
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