x aCknowleDgeMents
My thanks are due to David Baverstock and Dominic Morris, particularly for their help
with the chapter on Douro wines.
I am also grateful to the Instituto dos Vinhos do Porto e Douro (IVDP) for supporting
this book at the outset and for all the information that they have subsequently provided.
In the UK, I am grateful to the members of the Port Forum for their support and for
inviting me to so many of their wonderful tastings and sharing so many of their wines.
A number of people have been on hand when I needed information and I am especially
grateful to David Delaforce, Sue Glasgow and Raymond Reynolds. I am grateful to
William (‘Bill’) Warre MW for his input into the first chapter on history and to Dr Derek
Bunting for supplying me with so much fascinating information on the Whitehead family.
Leo Duff, whose work I have admired ever since she illustrated The Wine Society’s list in
1992, has provided evocative illustrations of the Douro, Oporto and Vila Nova de Gaia.
I am very grateful to the team at Infinite Ideas, especially to Richard Burton and
Rebecca Clare for having the confidence to publish the third edition of this book. Kate
Santon has been a patient and diligent editor and Emma Anderson an assiduous proof
reader. I am also grateful to cover designer Darren Hayball, text designer Nicki Averill
and Catherine Hall, the indexer.
I would also like to thank my Personal Assistant Diana Burgess for her patient
proofreading. She has saved me from making a large number of mistakes.
Finally I would like to thank my wife, Katrina, and my children Edward, Jamie and
Isabella who have given me encouragement when I sometimes thought the book would
never be finished. No book is ever entirely finished. In a world increasingly dictated by
fashion, views and opinions change. Any factual inaccuracies, on the other hand, are
entirely my own responsibility.
Richard Mayson, 2012