What's cooking: Jamie Sach

Jamie Sach believes there is a wine out there to suit everyone's palate.

Australian Jamie Sach's enthusiasm for wine is infectious. Making wine easy to understand is a passion for Sach, who has extensive experience and knowledge of the wine industry as cafe owner, restaurant manager, sommelier, television presenter, radio host, magazine columnist and winemaker.

After studying hotel management, Sach worked as a chef in Sydney before taking up an Adelaide challenge, moving to front of house as a restaurant supervisor and manager. In 1999 he became a sommelier at Magill Estate Restaurant, one of South Australia's finest restaurants.

Sach, in New Zealand to share his wine knowledge, is a regular contributor to Off the Vine, the wine lifestyle programme that airs on Channel Seven in South Australia and the Lifestyle Channel nationally. His segment teaches people how to cellar, open, decant and pour wines with his distinctive easy-to-understand no wine jargon style. Away from the camera he can also be found behind the microphone hosting a radio wine show, and writing for South Australia's Sumptuous magazine.

When he's not demystifying the world of wine for others, Sach is learning more about it by assisting the Penfolds winemaking team during vintage operations. He has also spent several vintages at Leabrook Estate in the Adelaide Hills, and has his own modest winemaking venture under his label The Sach, purely an experimental labour of love.

What do you like about your job?

I'm always doing something different and I get to travel to lots of interesting places. No two days are the same. I love the portfolio of wines I work with, there is such diversity and they are all of such outstanding quality I never have to do any hard selling. The wine in the bottle does all the talking.

What is your favourite wine?

Tough question. I have so many wines I love, it's too hard to nail down just one. I have a weakness for young Eden Valley riesling with oysters, old Barossa Valley shiraz with a tender fillet of beef and champagne just about anytime at all. If I had to take one bottle to a desert island it would be a Penfolds 1962 Bin 60A Coonawarra cabernet Kalimna shiraz - the most decorated red wine in Australian show history and still drinking beautifully 44 years after it was made.

What is the best food to eat with it?

For the Bin 60A I would have it with something simple like a fillet of veal with a mushroom ragout and sauteed spinach. The wine is ethereal and delicate and you wouldn't want to swamp it with a rich dish that was too robust.

What do you eat at home when you can't be bothered to cook?

I love cooking when I get home so I never find it a chore - it helps unwind me after a long day. If I only have a few minutes to whip something up it would usually be something like a simple Thai beef salad using fresh herbs and chillies from my garden.

What is always in your fridge?

A bottle of fino sherry, in my opinion the perfect aperitif.

What do you always have in your kitchen cupboards?

Tins of Sirena tuna - it's my staple lunch snack.

Is there anything you refuse to eat?

I stopped short of eating the raw heart of a snake in the south of China once, but I polished off the rest of the beast in a stir-fry. I'm a pretty adventurous former chef so I'll try just about anything once.

What is your idea of the perfect meal?

A picnic on the beach on a hot summer's night with my wife, a crayfish and a nice bottle of chilled champagne.

What advice would you give to someone who doesn't know much about wine?

Go with your instincts. If you like the wine, then it is good. There are so many different wine styles around nowadays, I believe there is something out there to suit everyone's palate.