Michel Jamais

In 1998, Michel had a major role in drafting and writing the standard work En Värld av Vin, a comprehensive book of around a thousand pages on the wine regions and wineries of the world. Five years later, he put on to update and rewrite “his” regions in the same book, and another success became a reality.

He stayed with this publisher and wrote his second book on wine and food pairing, Vin & Gastronomi that have been sold in more than 12 000 copies in Sweden! In the coming years an impressive standard work on the history and world of distillates, Destillerat, and a lighter version on that, Lilla Spritboken.

In 2004 he came in contact with a new publishing company, Grenadine, and wrote in cooperation with a cheese maker a very popular book called Ostkompaniets Njutningslära, that was sold in 40 000 copies.
In the following couple of years Michel was very productive – he wrote a series of books, one on wine and food (Michels Vin & Mat), another one on wine, beer and cheese (Michels Ost & Vin), and one very popular on beer and food (Michels Öl & Mat).

After writing the series of cookbooks with wines and beers, he wanted to focus more on the wine itself, and wrote two beautiful books with very artistic photos of the great photographer Johan Kalén, who he had worked with in the earlier books. One book focused on white wines, Michels Vita Viner, and the other on red wines, Michels Röda Viner.

In the following duo of books, Michel co-wrote them with two great chefs. In Het Mat, Coola Drycker, he worked with Jonas Borssén who for a long time have been specialized in hot and spicy food. Since spicy food is as popular as beer and wine, we thought it would be a good idea to share our long time experiences in the field.
Mat, Vin, Öl, Sprit was the result of seven years of wine dinners with Michel’s wine club at the restaurant Villa Källhagen in Stockholm. In this book, Michel and the restaurant’s executive chef Mathias Emilsson selected the very best combinations they made over the years, as well as some new and highly interesting combinations with beer and spirits.

In the fall of 2014 Michel published his third book on the spirits of the world, Livets Vatten. It’s a 500 page comprehensive book covering all the types of spirits, their history and origin, how they are made, rules and classification, how they are served and facts about the most important brands and producers.

Over the last two decades, the market for restaurants and importers of beers, wines and spirits has changed dramatically. There are more than 15 thousand brands and labels of beers, wines and spirits in Sweden today and the need and demand for knowledge is greater than ever.

The overall knowledge on beverages is high in Sweden and today the consumers are asking for more specific, unique and high quality beverages, they also demand a better service. Therefore knowledge is obvious and a competitive tool for the restaurants and the importing companies.
With greater knowledge, a restaurant can easily increase their profits and at the same time get more satisfied customers. Studies have proven that a sommelier trained waiter can increase the sales of wines with 20-25 percent.
A restaurant that regularly train their staff, will both develop and ensure the quality and keep their staff.

Michel Jamais has worked with first class sommelier education since 1998, and has so far trained over 1 600 sommeliers around Sweden. Beside his assignments at Restaurangakademien and Grythyttan (university), he is often hired directly by the restaurants, hotels and importing companies.

Michel Jamais offers a range of consulting services to hotels, restaurants, importers of wine and other beverages, embassies, wine or beer organizations or producers of wine, beer, spirits or food. It may be small one time assignments with a duration of a couple of hours, or contracts stretching over a long time, in Sweden or elsewhere. 

Since Michel also is an independent writer, some assignments may interfere with his independence and journalistic ethic, therefore he will not accept them.

Hotels and restaurants

Consulting regarding wine lists, development of food and beverage programs, staff training and general advices on wines, beers and spirits are the most common services Michel is hired for. He also arranges and (or) hosts beer or wine dinner for the clients of the restaurant.

Importers of beer, wine and spirit

The most common services are staff training and writing material for web sites of product catalogues (technical sheets or tasting notes), as well as training programs for the clients of the importers (this is quite popular as an incentive to very important clients).
Michel can also advice importers on producers to work with in different countries.
Again it’s important to mention that Michel is an independent writer, and there will be no evaluative reviews and no scoring whatsoever, only educational and technical texts.
All wines or other beverages used for tastings, classes or dinners, must be approved by Michel. Therefore some beverages may be excluded by Michel if he feels they are not of the desired style or acceptable quality.

Embassies and organizations

The assignments may consist of tastings and classes for educational purposes designed to restaurant schools, sommelier schools, for journalists, at fairs or for consumers in wine clubs or at restaurants. It may also be training material designed for the trade in booklets or on web sites.
Again it’s important to mention that Michel is an independent writer, and there will be no evaluative reviews and no scoring whatsoever, only educational and technical texts.
All wines or other beverages used for tastings, classes or dinners, must be approved by Michel. Therefore some beverages may be excluded by Michel if he feels they are not of the desired style or acceptable quality.

Food producers

Sometimes Michel undertakes assignments from food producers. They may consist of evaluation during the production process, written material (again, no evaluative reviews) or presentation for the press or at fairs with different types of beverages.

Michel Jamais is one of the most established and well known connoisseur of noble beverages in Sweden. For more than two decades he has spread his liquid knowledge, passion and inspiration through tastings, lectures, sommelier classes, magazines, books, radio, TV and internet over Sweden.

Michel Jamais was born in Stockholm in 1964. After he graduated as a chef from the culinary school, he worked from 1982 until 1997 as a chef, executive chef, food and beverage manager and sommelier. During these years he gained a deep knowledge in cooking and the beverages of the world and earned a very good reputation in the business.

In 1992 he founded his consulting company Michel Jamais Vin & Gastronomi AB and in the same year he became a member of the Swedish Sommelier Association.

After leaving the restaurant floor in 1997, he has been working full time as a consultant, sommelier teacher and writer on mostly wines and spirits. During all these years he gained a position as one of the most well known wine and spirit writers and authorities in Sweden. For several years he also trained sommeliers for competitions in the Swedish, Nordic, European and World Championships.

Today he works with clients in restaurants, sommelier schools and the wine and spirits trade all over Sweden as well as wine organizations in United States, Spain, France (Bourgogne) and several other countries.

As a writer, Michel debuted in 1995 in the magazine Allt om Vin, and released his first book on wine and food a year later. Since then he has published hundreds of articles on wines, beers and spirits, and more than a dozen books on the same topics. He is one of the most published and esteemed writers in Sweden and has over the years become a well known writer and wine personality in many wine countries around the world.

Since 2003 he is a frequent contributor in Livets Goda, the leading publication on fine wines in Scandinavia, as well as the sister magazine Whisky & Bourbon. In these magazines his main focus is the wines of California and United States, Bourgogne, Austria and Spain, as well as beers and spirits from all over the world.

In 1998 he was appointed one of the main teachers at the sommelier program at Restaurangakademien in Stockholm, the number one sommelier school and centre for gastronomy in Sweden. Over the years, he has been part of training more than 1 300 sommelier students, several of them who later became well known sommeliers in Sweden.
Michel is also hired as a teacher at other sommelier schools in Sweden, where he has trained another couple of hundred sommeliers.

Since 2011 Michel is a certified educator at l’École du Vin in Beaune for BIVB and the wines of Bourgogne, and he also serve as an ambassador for that great wine region.
As a consultant he is also assigned by ICEX (Spain), California Wine Institute, Austrian Wine Marketing and Sopexa (France) to conduct tastings, wine seminars, master classes and education.
Restaurants, hotels, private companies and wine importers in Sweden will also be found on his list of clients.

In the 2000s, Michel has also been deeply involved in Stockholm Beer & Whisky Festival and Taste Experience, one of the leading festivals of its kind in the world. During the festival’s two weekends every fall, he runs beer classes for over a thousand attendees every year.

Over the years, Michel has travelled the world of fine wines and other beverages and visited more than 1 200 wineries, breweries and distilleries on all continents.
Only in California, where his main focus is (he normally spend 5-6 weeks there every year) he has visited more than 500 wineries. In Burgundy, his second most important region to cover, the number of visited domaines counts to more than one 120.

For all his efforts, he has been awarded on several occasions, and he is the holder of all of the most prestigious Swedish prices. In 1998 he received the Sune Carlquist Scholarship for his work and efforts with wine and food. In 2006 he received Svenska Vinakademiens Scholarship for his longtime work and development of the Swedish culture of wine. Then, in 2008 he was named the Wine Profile of the Year by the national wine club Munskänkarna.

Michel Jamais has participated in several radio programs and TV shows over the years, and is well known all over Sweden. After nearly 5 000 wine tastings and wine seminars, he is one of the most hired wine tasters ever in Sweden.

Since Michel Jamais founded his consultant company in 1992, he has organized or led over 5 000 tastings for approximately 150 000 guests all over Sweden. With that he is by far the most hired lecturer and wine taster in Sweden.

His tastings are addressed to everyone from beginner to those who have tasted wines for decades, both amateurs and professionals. Michel is always keen on keeping each tasting at the level of knowledge and fun the guests ask for.

More regular easy going, consumer oriented and entertaining tastings, which are mostly asked for when beginners or companies hire him for a tasting, normally consists of around 5-6 wines (or beers or spirits), and they usually runs for about one and a half hour.

Michel also offers more in-depth and specialized tastings, especially to customers who are more experienced and asks for more exclusive and specific topics. A tasting like this may consist of anything from 5-6 to over 10-12 wines, and it will take around 2 hours, depending on the kind of lecture asked for and the number of wines to be tasted.
Since Michel is specialized in California, Bourgogne, Austria and Spain, as well as the grape varieties Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon and Tempranillo, tastings will most likely cover one of these subjects.