About

Even if many readers don’t remember (the younger generations – alas – certainly don’t), my career in wine at a professional level began between 1989 and 1990 as a wine taster.

First for Luigi Veronelli (until 1996), then for Vinum, until the early 2000s, then for l’Espresso, for which I edited the first two editions of the Guida ai Vini d’Italia. And not least for myself, with the independent newsletter Enogea.

Since 2007, I have complemented my reportage of wine and tastings with another old passion of mine, cartography, which over the years has become so prominent that today – as I said at the beginning – many wine enthusiasts know me only as a publisher of wine maps – alias MapMan.

This activity has brought me numerous awards, from The Wine Spectator to Jancis Robinson, and led to a collaboration with Vinous and Antonio Galloni, with whom I have been carrying out an ambitious project of mapping California for several years now.

The Langhe (Barolo and Barbaresco) are my exemplars, but I have mapped and explored many other regions, first and foremost Chianti Classico, not to neglect Valpolicella and Bordeaux.

All I’d like to add is that I’ve always been convinced that the true essence of journalism lies not in purveying  opinions but in carrying out research and in-depth analysis, the fruits of which must be translated into information and content.  Better if produced in the field.

To date, my books and maps are read in more than 30 countries around the world.

And that was another of my goals.

Contributors

Paolo De Cristofaro
Enogea – Barolo MGA 360 contributor

Aquarius ascendant Leo, I was born in Avellino in February 1978. Journalist, taster, popularizer and radio and television author specialised in food and wine communication, for over twenty years I have been collaborating with some of the most famous magazines in the sector, including Alessandro Masnaghetti’s Enogea, which I assisted in the production of the books Barbaresco MGA – Second Edition (2021), Chianti Classico. The Atlas of the Vineyards and UGAs (2022), Barolo MGA Vol I – Third Edition (2023) and in other important publishing and mapping projects.

Together with my friend and colleague Antonio Boco, in 2009 we founded the multimedia publication Tipicamente, for which I conceived and edited the podcast series Vino al Vino 50 Anni Dopo and since 2023 the monographs in the Tipicamente Magazine – Dependent Journal series.
Also in 2023, I wrote the book Centopassi. La Sicilia è bella (Sicily is beautiful), an essay-narrative dedicated to the winery of the Libera Terra Cooperative, which produces its wines from land confiscated from the mafia in the Alto Belice Corleonese area. I then collaborated with Daniele Cernilli as co-author of the book Sulle tracce del Gallo Nero (On the Trails of the Black Rooster), published by Giunti Editore in 2024 on the occasion of the centenary of the foundation of the Chianti Classico Wine Consortium. In the same period, after more than a decade of work, the digital publications I edited for the FEUDISTUDI: Vigne e Vini d’Irpinia (Irpinia’s Vineyards and Wines) series were released through Amazon’s Kindle platform. This series consists of four volumes in two languages, Italian and English (Irpinia, Taurasi and Irpinia Campi Taurasini, Greco di Tufo, Fiano di Avellino).

In addition to his activities as a critic and writer, he has always been a trainer and speaker in seminars, tasting courses and thematic focuses. Insights and seminars also proposed as head of editorial content for the main wine festivals dedicated to wines from Irpinia and Campania.
Among the most significant experiences as author, host and director of television formats focused on Italian food and wine: Cantinando, Lupus in Tabula, the documentaries of Il Mangiastorie, Bada che ti mangio by Antonio Lubrano.