Four Master Sommeliers and four of Italy's most prominent winemakers will square off on stage at Pier 36 in New York City on October 26, 2026, in a session designed to surface the commercial realities that typically stay behind closed doors. The event, hosted by the wine2wine Vinitaly Business Forum and organized with the Italian Trade Agency, frames itself as a frank bilateral interrogation rather than a panel discussion — producers pressing sommeliers on why good wines get passed over, and sommeliers pressing producers on pricing, distributor support, and on-floor sell-through.
The Sommelier Perspective
The four Master Sommeliers participating each represent a distinct corner of American hospitality and the three-tier system. Laura DePasquale MS, Senior Vice President of Sales Execution Fine Wine at Southern Glazer's Beverage Company, brings a distributor-side lens rarely present in producer-facing forums. Julie M. Dalton MS, Wine Director at The Post Oak Hotel, represents luxury on-premise purchasing, while Jim Bube MS, Wine Director at Hogsalt Restaurant Group, speaks to the multi-unit independent segment that drives significant by-the-glass volume. Jonathan Eichholz MS, CEO of First Growth Inc., rounds out the group with a focus on education and trade communication — a skill set increasingly critical as wine programs compete for floor staff attention. For operators and buyers tracking beverage industry trends, the panel composition signals how layered the path to placement actually is.
What the Session Will Probe
The conversation is structured around four commercial tensions: price versus value, availability versus demand, storytelling versus selling, and first placements versus lasting relationships. The questions the session poses are deliberately blunt. Producers will be asked to pitch a wine's relevance in 30 seconds without using the words terroir, tradition, or generations — a direct challenge to the way many Italian estates currently approach the U.S. market. Sommeliers, in turn, will face the question of whether they communicate sell-through data back to producers or simply stop reordering without explanation.
Facing the Master Sommeliers are Enrica Cotarella of Famiglia Cotarella, Gabriella Favara of Donnafugata, Marilisa Allegrini, and Diva Moretti Polegato of Villa Sandi. The session is moderated by Jenny Hemmer DipWSET, Executive Director at GuildSomm, and Stevie Kim, Managing Partner of Vinitaly. It runs from 1:30 PM to 2:15 PM in the Manhattan Room and closes with a rapid-fire round putting the core challenge to both sides: if every stakeholder claims to want more Italian wine on American lists, what structural or relational barriers are actually preventing it?
For restaurant and hospitality professionals navigating wine program development and import relationships, the session offers a rare opportunity to hear placement decisions analyzed by the buyers who make them — in real time, with producers in the room. The wine2wine Vinitaly Business Forum New York Edition runs October 26–27, 2026 at Pier 36. Food & Beverage Magazine has covered the growing U.S. presence of Italian wine trade events as Italian producers intensify efforts to deepen market share beyond traditional coastal strongholds.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
