Interview with Michael Jamais

Today, we bring you an Interview with Michael Jamais, a great blogger and enotourishm lover, you can find here his amazing Blog, and of course, we wish you to enjoy the interview.

Hi, Mr Jamais, Can you introduce yourself?

My name is Michel Jamais, I'm a Swedish chef and sommelier (for 18 years) that in the mid 1990s started work as a sommelier teacher and wine writer, since 2004 writing for the leading publication (Livets Goda) on fine wines in Scandinavia. In that magazine I write about the wines from Spain, United States, Austria and Bourgogne and Rhône Valley of France.

   Over the last 20 years, I have been traveling the world, visiting over 1200 wineries and breweries, many of them several times. I also have my own wine club here in Stockholm, where I live, and a few times per year I arrange wine trips to the best wine regions for my members.

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What are your blogs url's and social media accounts in case anyone would like to follow you.

I have a blog called Café Rotsunda (my "home restaurant"), where I write about hedonistic and exclusive wine dinners, and about great restaurants I have visited. It's in Swedish, unfortunately, and the address is www.caferotsunda.blogspot.com.

I also have a Facebook page.

What are your worldwide favourite wineries, and why.

It's really impossible to say, since I find it to be so interesting with the variety of wineries, and that most wineries, at least the great ones, have a sort of own personality.

And what do you think about the Spanish denomination and Spanish wines?

I find Spain to be a very interesting wine country, that for some reason too many people have missed. First of all it's a huge wine country with so many different appellations and types of wines, also the climate and soil varies a lot from region to region. One thing that is remarkable, is that there are so many old and great but not perfectly taken of vineyards, that from one year to another, in the hands of a new and more educated and ambitious generation, make more and more impressive wines. This happens all the time, and in most of the appellations around the country. Spain is not longer what it was, and what people in general think it is, Spain is in many senses "the New World of the Old World". And it is very exciting!

Spain is making a great efford to encourage the enotourism, what is your opinion about this kind of tourism, and about thee efforts, do you think that they are doing it properly? Do you think that they should do anything else?

Since millions of people around the world are very interested in wines, and find it to be both fun and inspiring to visit the wine country, enotourism is (or at least should be) essential to all wine regions. Spain has been a bit late in that sense, but now we are seeing more and more bodegas opening up their doors to welcome visitors. That's great. Also, one see more good restaurants and better and more comfortable hotels with a good international standard, and that's very important to attract tourists. One thing that still is a bit of a problem in Spain, is that people must speak English to be at the service level international guests wants.

What are your favorite wines?

Again, that's impossible to answer, it all depends on what you are looking for, the moment, the people you are drinking it with, and what type of food you are eating. I love wine because they are different, but to me a wine must reflect its origin and its grape variety to be a great wine. If so, it's not really important if it is a great Tinto Fino from Ribera del Duero (like the ones from Dominio de Pingus or Bodegas Hermanos Perez Pasquas), a Tempranillo from Rioja Alavesa (like the ones from Artadi, Benjamin Romeo or the Eguren family), if it is a deeply colored and intense wine from old vines in Priorat, a Garnacha from old wines in San Martin in Madrid, or if it is one the many fantastic white wines from all over Spain, that quite recently have been seen on the market.

Enotourism culture is growing world wide, and everyday more people arem interested in wine culture, how would you recommend them to start in to this world, what wine would you recommend for beginners?.

There are a few things that helps, first of all knowledge. The more you know about a wine region, a grape variety, a wine style and a producer, the more interesting the wine gets. Therefore, reading as much as possible is very important, and of course, tasting a lot of wines is crucial. In the beginning, I think the most important thing is to be curios, and not decide which wines are the best, just taste and taste and gain experience. A good thing is to get together with some friends, so one can split the costs of the bottles, because it is a quite expensive hobby and you need to taste also the greatest and most expensive wines.

And now a personal recommendation of a wine.

I stay in the Ribera del Duero region, since that's where we travelled with Grandoure. At a low price, I would recommend El Gavilan from Hermanos Perez Perez Pasquas, a wine that taste much more authentic than any wine at lower price in the Ribera del Duero region. It's really a very good wine that could be drunk young or after five to eight years. At a higher price, I would recommend the Parcela El Nougal from the neighbor bodega, Pago de los Capellanes, it's a more intense, deep and structured wine, but always with a purity and complexity one should expect in a fine wine.

For those who have the possibility to buy a divine wine, the best and most elegant red wine of Spain is the very rare and expensive Pingus, from Dominio de Pingus. That's outstanding!

What is the wine culture in Sweden like?, do they like our wines?, and our land?

Spain was for many decades the number one destination for Swedish people on the holidays. We still go to Spain, but since the late 1990s, Thailand is the most important destination for us. Still Spanish wines are very important here in Sweden, especially the reds and cava, but the competition on the market is very tough, and cheaper wines from South Africa, Chile and Australia are selling more.

Unfortunately, Spanish wines here in Sweden are almost equal to Rioja, most people don't know so much about the other regions, although Priorat, Penedes, Rueda, Rias Baixas and to a smaller extent Ribera del Duero and Bierzo are getting more and more known.

I would say that Swedes likes the wines from Spain, but they need to get updated on what the "new" and much more interesting Spain has to offer.

Do you recommend traveling to Castilla and Leon to wine lovers around the world?

Yes, absolutely. They will be thrilled about the wines, and the food, and now also the great hotels like AF Hotel in Peñafiel and the fabulous Le Domaine of Abadia Retuerta. 

We, at Coaches and Microbuses Grandoure, the coach company in Madrid and Valladolid, want to thanks Mr Jamais for taking his time to answer our interview and for travel with us. All photos in this article are from his lovely blog.