Sommelier experience; curious on opinions

Wife and i were eating dinner at a fine dining restaurant in Toronto (think 1 star Michelin if that’s a thing in Canada). The restaurant can be known for being more of a place that caters to expense accounts and maybe tourists, but we’ve always have a decent experience there and the food has been good. After a cocktail we had bottle of Etna Bianca which was great, before choosing a bottle of red.

We asked to speak to the sommelier with the following parameters: wine under $200, we’re interested in trying an unique or underrated region (pointing to the section with wines from Greece, Uruguay, Hungary, Chile, South Africa, Argentina etc) asking the sommelier if there were any interesting, unique or great wines that he was personally excited about on the wine list.

I would have thought most sommeliers would be somewhat excited to talk about options that aren’t chosen as frequently but he couldn’t seem more uninterested. He ended up recommending an Italian wine that i can’t even remember and had virtually nothing to say about it except that it was interesting and some baseline descriptors. Did i screw up? Should i have been more specific? How should i ask for a recommendation next time?