Port and the Douro

This book is an essential and up-to-date reference to one of the world's greatest wines and the finest mountain wine region.

Richard Mayson recounts the history of Port up to the present day and gives a thorough analysis of the vineyards and grape varieties, with a geographical directory of the top estates or quintas. Port production and the full range of styles, from Ruby to Vintage, are covered in detail. Based on the author's extensive tasting notes there is a detailed guide to vintages back to 1844. Douro wines, unfortified but made from the same grape varieties as Port, are covered in a seaparate chapter.

Whereas many books on Port tend to focus on the two cities of Oporto and Vila Nova de Gaia and the rather clubbable lifestyle of the Port shippers, this book seeks to put Port in context and gives the growers and vineyards of the Douro valley equal if not greater weight Above all, this fully revised fourth edition is a good read for wine drinkers and wine trade students alike.

Port and the Douro won the Symington family Port Award in 2004

'a fantastic read from the get-go' jancisrobinson.com

'if you need to know anything at all about Port...this is the book to have at hand' Spittoon.biz

'authoritative...Mayson casts a knowledgeable and, where necessary, critical eye over the past present and future of Port' Sunday Times

'a useful insiders view' Giles MacDonagh, Financial Times

'a very useful book because Richard Mayson really does know his subject' Jasper Morris MW, The Vine

'definitive and well-written' San José Mercury

'Mayson...writes directly and clearly and has taken great pains to make the work comprehansive. Buy the book!' Harvey Finkel, New England Wine Gazette

'Mayson's knowledge is encylopaedic...' Raymond Blake, Food and Drink (Ireland)

First published in 1999 by Faber & Faber, London, with a fully revised and updated second edition published by Mitchell Beazley, London in 2004. This book is now in its fourth edition, published by Infinite Ideas, Oxford, UK. Hardback, pp 320. Illustrations by Leo Duff. Colour plates.