Stefano Paolino

Stefano Paolino

Sommelier. Founder. Wine tech builder.

A sommelier who ships software. I founded Winecore, a Swiss fine wine house, and I design and build the apps, data tools and AI systems behind it.

See the tech LinkedIn
CHF 3M+Winecore revenue to date
1,400+Wines live on my trade portal
2Apps live, built by me
2Swiss trademarks

Wine is one of the oldest crafts in the world. Most of its tools are stuck in the past. I know the cellar and I know the code, and I use both to build what the wine world is missing.

Italian. Raised in gastronomy. Based near Zurich.

Results. Not just ideas.

What I have delivered so far, on the wine side and on the tech side.

CHF 3M+

Revenue with Winecore since 2023, built and run almost entirely on my own.

Clients in Switzerland, Europe and Asia
1,400+

Wine positions live on winecore.trade, the invite-only portal I launched in May 2026.

Fed by my own data pipeline
78 to ~200

Bottles consigned at a Michelin-starred partner, after it chose to add a second list.

Consignment program
2

Apps designed and shipped by me: Open Wine Atlas and FindMyTruck, both live.

With AI-assisted development
17

Region errors caught in one partner wine list by my pricing tool, plus a VAT issue and a commission mismatch.

Consignment pricing tool
4

Own channels for the wine atlas: Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and Pinterest, with films rendered from the map.

Open Wine Atlas

Wine tech. Designed and built by me.

I design, code and ship, with AI as my co-pilot. Every product starts from a real problem I met in wine or hospitality. Open any card for the full story.

Build

Next.jsReactViteTailwindMapbox GL JS

Data and ship

SupabasePostgresVercelGitHubWooCommerce

AI and automation

ClaudeClaude CodeZapiermonday.comBrevo

Open Wine Atlas, creator and developer

The world's vineyards. On one open map.

Built from public data. Appellations and terrain in one place, free for everyone.

Elevation, slope, aspectRelief coloured by altitudeGoing worldwide4 media channels
Live Open the atlas

FindMyTruck, founder and developer

Lunch, located.

Swiss food trucks, live on a map.

Next.js 14SupabaseMapboxSwiss trademark
Live Visit site

Open Climbing Atlas, creator

Know where to climb.

And which guidebook to bring.

Same map engine8 countriesCrags and topo books
In development

AI operations layer, architect

An AI back office for a company of one.

Voice notes in. Drafts, tasks, products and newsletters out. Nothing leaves without my approval.

Claude at the coreVoice capturemonday.comWooCommerceBrevo
Running daily

winecore.trade data pipeline

Messy lists in. Live shop out.

Supplier spreadsheets turned into clean products, without retyping.

8 product attributesAny file format1,400+ positions

Restaurant radar

See new restaurants before they open.

Built on the Swiss commercial register.

SHAB and ZefixEarly leads
Internal

Consignment pricing tool

Every margin, live.

One screen where the partner sees the same numbers I see.

InteractiveCaught 17 list errors
Internal

Portfolio analytics

Know every bottle's margin.

Purchase and resale analysis behind each wine.

Supabase, EUReact and ViteTeam login
Internal

Winecore. The wine house.

One fine wine company, many ways in. Each one built from a problem I saw on the floor.

Founder and CEO, since 2023

Winecore

Great wine, sourced like a merchant and chosen like a sommelier.

CHF 3M+ revenueDRC, Dom Pérignon, Cristal, OrnellaiaBonded warehouse
Visit winecore.ch

Private clients

winecore.ch

The cellar door, open online.

Champagne and BurgundyPrices incl. VATPick-up in Obfelden
Visit site

Trade, since May 2026

winecore.trade

Fine wine ordering, without the phone calls.

Invite only1,400+ positionsDesigned by me
Visit site

Restaurant program

Consignment

A full cellar. Zero capital.

3 tiers, 30 to 100+ winesMonthly settlementInsured stock

Wine direction

Wine Profit System

A sommelier for restaurants that don't have one.

Free mini auditList, pricing, training
Visit site

Events

Wine, with the person who poured it.

Sommelier-led verticals, partner fairs and private dinners.

Burgstein's Lädeli, Zurich

A wine shop that became a stage.

Premium wine outlet and event room.

Around 300 bottlesEvents for 14 to 16
Reopening

Wine on tap

Great wine. No bottle.

Reusable kegs for bars and restaurants.

20 L per kegFirst venue pouring
Active

Career. From the floor to the code.

Years in the dining room taught me what the industry needs. Now I build it.

  1. 2023 to today

    Founder and CEO

    Winecore, Paolino Grand Cru GmbH, Zug

    I lead buying, key accounts, pricing and contracts. I also design and build the platforms, data tools and automation that let one person run a fine wine house with the reach of a team.

    CHF 3M+ revenueClients in CH, Europe and Asia2 apps live2 Swiss trademarks
  2. Earlier career

    Cellar Master

    Fine Wine Capital AG

    Cellar management for a Swiss fine wine company.

  3. Sommelier

    The Luma, Smith & Smith Group

    Fine dining wine service within a hospitality group.

  4. Sommelier

    The Dolder Grand, Zurich

    Five-star grand hotel above Zurich.

  5. Sommelier

    Four Seasons Hotel, Sydney

    Five-star hotel on Sydney Harbour, on the other side of the world.

  6. The beginning

    Raised in gastronomy

    Italian roots

    Restaurants were my playground long before they were my job.

Capabilities. And the proof.

A rare mix: I can taste the wine, win the client and build the software. Every skill below has something real behind it.

Wine

Sommelier training and a buyer's eye.

  • Sourcing and buyingPrestige labels such as DRC, Dom Pérignon, Cristal and Ornellaia, held in bond.
  • Wine list design and pricingThe Wine Profit System for restaurants without a sommelier.
  • Tastings and verticalsHouse Veeder, six vintages from 2009 to 2019.
  • Service at the highest levelFour Seasons Sydney and The Dolder Grand.

Business

Built and run a company end to end.

  • Key account managementFew, strong clients across Switzerland, Europe and Asia.
  • Deal structuringA 23-section consignment contract with insured stock.
  • Brand protectionWinecore and Find My Truck in the Swiss trademark register.
  • PartnershipsHotel kommod events and a wine-on-tap partnership.

Tech

Ideas shipped as working software.

  • Full-stack prototypingNext.js, React, Supabase. From idea to live domain myself.
  • Maps and geodataTwo atlases built on terrain and public data.
  • Data pipelines1,400+ wine positions flowing into a live shop.
  • AI automationAn AI back office with one approve button.

Education

  • WSET Level 4 Diploma in Wines In progress
  • WSET Level 3 Award in Wines Pass with Merit
  • Court of Master Sommeliers Course

Languages

  • Italian Native
  • German Fluent
  • English Fluent
  • French Fluent
  • Spanish Fluent

Let's talk wine and tech.

For collaborations, projects and good conversations about where wine is going next.

Email me LinkedIn
stefano.paolino1@gmail.com

Open Wine Atlas

An open atlas of the world's vineyards.

Detailed wine maps exist, but they live in heavy books or behind paywalls. I wanted every climat, slope and village on one free map.

RoleCreator and developer
StatusLive
HostingVercel, GitHub

How it works

Public geodataTerrain modelRelief mapMap films

What I built

It began as an idea for a Burgundy app. I rebuilt it as an open system: a map made only from public data, starting with Spain, Italy, France, Switzerland and Germany, and now expanding to every wine region in the world.

Distribution

The atlas has its own channels on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and Pinterest, scheduled from one dashboard. Each film is rendered from the atlas map itself, with music, a custom cover and real data: where an appellation sits, what lies nearby, how regions compare.

Roadmap

Open the atlas

FindMyTruck

Forty-five minutes for lunch.

Zurich has great food trucks. Finding one at a quarter past twelve, on a short lunch break, is the hard part.

RoleFounder and developer
StatusLive at findmytruck.ch
StackNext.js 14, Supabase, Mapbox

The insight

Existing Swiss sites collect data passively from the web, so it is often out of date. The only reliable source is the truck itself. So in FindMyTruck the truck switches on its live location with one tap.

How it works

Truck goes liveMap updatesGuest finds itQR to profile

What I built

I wrote the first version myself with Claude Code and deployed it on Vercel, including the domain and DNS setup.

Go to market

Zurich first, in five micro-zones: Zurich West, Oerlikon, Altstetten, ETH Hönggerberg and Letzipark. The first 30 to 50 trucks join as Founding Trucks, free and without commission. I visit each one in person. The key metric is not sign-ups but how many trucks are live at the same time. First target: 10 trucks and 500 users in 60 days.

Roadmap

Visit findmytruck.ch

Open Climbing Atlas

Same engine. Different mountains.

The wine atlas turned out to be very good at terrain. Climbers live on terrain.

RoleCreator
StatusIn development
Coverage8 countries

The problem

Planning a climbing trip across borders means digging through dozens of guidebooks and websites.

What I am building

A map of outdoor crags across Europe in the same style as the wine atlas. For every crag, the topo books that cover it, so you know where to go and what to pack. It reuses the map engine I built for wine, which is the point: one platform, many worlds.

First version

Switzerland, Italy, France, Austria, Germany, Spain, Slovenia and Hungary.

AI operations layer

An AI back office for a company of one.

Sales, buying, admin, newsletters, the shop. In a company of one, all of it lands on the same desk. So I built a system that does the first draft of everything.

RoleArchitect
CoreClaude
RuleOne approve button

How it works

CaptureAI reviewDraft and routeI approve

What I built

The principle

Automate everything up to the last step. Nothing goes to a client without my yes.

winecore.trade data pipeline

Messy lists in. Live shop out.

Wine offers arrive as spreadsheets. Some in old encodings, some separated by semicolons, the real header hidden a few rows down, prices marked "on request". Retyping them by hand does not scale.

RoleDesigner
OutputWooCommerce products
Scale1,400+ positions

How it works

Supplier fileFind headerMap fieldsLive products

What I built

Result

One summer update put 250 new positions online in a single pass. The portal now holds more than 1,400.

Visit winecore.trade

Restaurant radar

See new restaurants before they open.

The best moment to win a restaurant is before its wine list exists. Every new company in Switzerland is published in the commercial register first.

RoleBuilder
SourcesSHAB and Zefix
UseWinecore only

How it works

Register entryFilter restaurantsLead listFirst contact

What it does

Reads the Swiss Official Gazette of Commerce and the central company index, filters new restaurant businesses and turns them into leads for the consignment program and wine direction.

A decision

I considered selling it as a subscription to suppliers. I chose to keep it in-house as an edge for Winecore.

Consignment pricing tool

Every margin, live.

In consignment, three parties share each bottle: the venue, the person who brought the deal and Winecore. If the numbers are not clear, trust breaks.

RoleDesigner and builder
TypeInteractive web tool
UsersPartners and me

How it works

Purchase priceVenue shareCommissionMenu price

What it does

Change any value and every margin recalculates instantly, so the partner sees exactly what I see.

Result

The first full review of a partner list caught 17 wines labelled with the wrong region, a VAT issue, a commission set below what was agreed and one vintage priced above market. All flagged before the list went live.

Portfolio analytics

Know every bottle's margin.

It started with one Champagne deal. I wanted to check the purchase and resale numbers properly, and the analysis became a tool for the whole portfolio.

RoleDesigner and builder
BackendSupabase, EU region
Front endReact and Vite

How it works

Import listCost and targetMargin per wineDecision

What I built

Winecore

From the dining room to a wine house of my own.

On the floor I kept seeing the same thing. Great restaurants paying heavy distributor margins. Lists built in a hurry. The best bottles never reaching the right table.

RoleFounder and CEO
Founded2023
CompanyPaolino Grand Cru GmbH, Zug

The idea

A wine partner that thinks like a sommelier, not a salesman. For restaurants, for the trade and for collectors.

What I built

Direct relationships with importers and estates. Prestige labels such as DRC, Dom Pérignon, Cristal and Ornellaia, held in a bonded warehouse. An online shop for private clients, an invite-only trade portal and a consignment program for restaurants. Winecore is a registered Swiss trademark.

Where it stands

More than CHF 3 million in revenue, with clients in Switzerland, Europe and Asia. Built and run almost entirely by one person, with software doing the rest.

Visit winecore.ch

winecore.ch

The bottles everyone kept asking about.

It started with a simple question from collectors and friends. Can I buy that too?

RoleOwner and buyer
ForPrivate clients
DeliveryShipping or pick-up

What I built

A curated online shop, not a catalogue. Champagne, Burgundy and the great names of Italy and Bordeaux, each one a wine I would pour myself. Clear round prices including VAT. Pick-up at the Winecore shop in Obfelden, near Zurich. Regular newsletters to private clients feature the prestige Champagne and Burgundy the shop is known for.

Next

A daily Wine of the Day, a private allocation list for the rare bottles that never reach the shop, and short Sommelier's Pick videos.

Visit winecore.ch

winecore.trade

Goodbye spreadsheets. Hello portal.

Restaurants used to order from me by message, call and Excel file. It worked. Until it didn't scale.

LaunchedMay 2026
AccessInvite only
Positions1,400+

What I built

An invite-only ordering portal where restaurants, bars and trade buyers browse the full portfolio and order in a few clicks. I designed the site myself: home, about, shop and contact, built around the consignment story. Behind it runs my own data pipeline, so new stock goes online without retyping.

Why it matters

The portal is also the home of the consignment program. Restaurants pick their list there, and Winecore places the wine.

Visit winecore.trade

Consignment

A full cellar. Zero capital.

Independent restaurants have a cash problem. A serious wine list can lock up tens of thousands of francs on the shelf.

Enoteca30 wines
Ristorante50 wines
Grand Cru100+ wines

The idea

Winecore places the wine. The restaurant sells it. Winecore keeps ownership until a bottle is sold, and both sides settle once a month.

What I built

A full consignment contract with 23 sections, covering exclusivity, logistics and dunning. Insurance for stock held at third parties, arranged through a Swiss broker. Monthly reconciliation, a monthly sommelier visit and staff tastings. A live pricing tool so every margin is visible.

Before launch I stress-tested the weak points: capital tied up, insolvency risk and stock leakage.

Where it stands

Running with a Michelin-starred restaurant and other venues in German-speaking Switzerland. Single placements reach more than 300 bottles, and the Michelin-starred partner is growing its list from 78 to around 200 bottles.

Wine Profit System

A sommelier, without hiring one.

One of my partners holds a Michelin star. Brilliant kitchen. No sommelier. The couple who run it were doing everything themselves.

RoleWine director
Entry pointFree mini audit
ForRestaurants and hotels

How it works

Mini auditWine auditNew listManagement

A free mini audit of 10 to 15 positions on the list. Then a full wine audit, a new list with pricing and staff training, and ongoing wine management. Sourcing through Winecore often means the same bottle costs the restaurant less, while the menu price stays.

Next

Preparing partner wine lists for the Falstaff and Vinum wine list awards.

Visit the page

Events

Two nights in September.

A wine tastes different when the person pouring it knows the story behind it.

FormatSommelier-led
Size14 to 16 seats
NextApril 2027

24 September 2026, Zurich

A vertical of House Veeder from Napa Valley. Six vintages from 2009 to 2019, side by side, for 14 seats.

25 September 2026, Liechtenstein

Cuvée Alpin on the rooftop of Hotel kommod in Ruggell. Winecore was a partner exhibitor and poured Domaine Kuheiji, a Japanese sake family making wine in Burgundy since 2016. I have known the winemaker for years and visited the estate.

Next

A two-day edition at Hotel kommod on 23 and 24 April 2027. And private dinners for companies and families, with the wine, the room and the ride home taken care of.

Burgstein's Lädeli

People came in. They just didn't buy.

Burgstein's Lädeli is a small wine shop in Zurich. Foot traffic was never the problem. Conversion was.

ModelConsignment
CapacityAround 300 bottles
StatusReopening

The fix

Change what the room is for. It reopens with Winecore as a premium wine outlet, with a regular tasting calendar and made-to-measure events for companies.

How it works

Wine to take home every day. Wine on the table only during events, for 14 to 16 guests. At lunch, a schnitzel sandwich for the offices around the corner. Over time, partner wineries will show their own wines on the shelves.

Wine on tap

Great wine. No bottle.

Bottles are heavy, costly and mostly thrown away after one evening.

Keg20 litres
EqualsAbout 26 bottles
ForBars and restaurants

What it is

Reusable kegs that keep wine fresh, cut waste and let venues pour quality by the glass at a fair price. Together with a partner, Winecore supplies the kegs and the tap.

Where it stands

The first venue is already pouring from them. It is also offered as a by-the-glass module within the Wine Profit System.