Excerpts

PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITIONAll books start somewhere. This one began on 24 March 1980, the day that I was invited to lunch in Vila Nova de Gaia by Jorge Ferreira, then a director of the Port house A. A. Ferreira. Fresh from school at the time, I vividly recall being in awe of the atmosphere in Oporto, Gaia and the Port lodges. With a glass of Ferreira's ethereal Duque de Bragança Twenty-Year-Old Tawny in hand, I remember thinking that it would be a good idea to take more of an interest in wine. It was two years later that I really came to know the Douro when I was given free run of Ferreira's quintas for a university dissertation on microclimate within Port vineyards. Jorge Ferreira was killed in a tragic car accident on the way to the Douro in 1992. This book is dedicated to him.My first visits to Oporto and the Douro coincided with a period of rapid change. Six years earlier, on 25 April 1974, a political revolution in Lisbon changed Portugal's outlook on the world. Having shed her African colonies, Portugal began to look towards Europe for socio-economic development and growth. But conditions in the Douro and much of rural Portugal had not changed for centuries. Having suffered from decades of under-investment and neglect, the rural infrastructure had fallen apart and many inhabitants of the Douro endured medieval standards of living. Although the revolution may have changed the outlook of a metropolitan minority, attitudes in the countryside remained much as they were.Over the last three decades, the pace of change has accelerated and penetrated even the most remote corners of rural Portugal. In the late 1970s Jorge Ferreira was one of a number of pioneers of new labour-saving viticultural techniques that have now been adopted by grape growers throughout the Douro. The face of the region has altered as a result, perhaps more than at any time over the past three hundred years. These changes are more than surface deep. Since Portugal became a fully-fledged member of the European Union in 1986, the country has been transformed and the consequences continue to be far-reaching.The opportunity to rewrite, revise and update a book that was last published nine years ago impresses upon me again just how profound this transformation has become. There are changes and innovations everywhere: in the vineyard, in the winery, among the shippers and in the institutions which regulate and govern the Port and Douro wine trade. There are new faces, too, and with them come new attitudes. I have tried to include these in this edition of the book.The premise of this, the third edition of Port and the Douro, remains the same as the first. Whereas in the past books on Port tended 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 wine in context. It gives the Douro, the vineyards, growers and the region, equal if not greater weight. I have included a great deal of new information on the cultivation of the Douro's vineyards. Portuguese grape varieties, once a treasure trove waiting to be uncovered, are now more widely known and I have included up-to-date material and opinions here. Change continues in the winery and a discussion of the latest vinification methods can be found in Chapter 3. I have dedicated an entire chapter to vintage Port, including harvests as recent as 2015 and information on vintages back to 1844. With the passing of time I have reappraised vintages to bring them up to date. The structure of the trade has also changed in recent years with the withdrawal of the multinationals and the sale and amalgamation of a number of famous Port firms. These are included in the comprehensive directory of Port producers and shippers that makes up Chapter 6. Finally, I have written a new postscript to the book which attempts to address some of the challenges and changes that might affect Port and the Douro in future.Once again I have set out to make Port and the Douro a 'good read' for wine drinkers and wine trade students alike. Individual chapters, some of them longer than in the previous edition, have been broken down into shorter sections. Throughout the book I have inserted short profiles on the men (and one woman) who have shaped the Douro into the region it is today. I have also added some anecdotes from my own involvement with Port. Technical information on legislation, viticulture and vinification is confined to specific sections of the book. Where Portuguese terminology or technical terms require a detailed explanation, they may be found in the separate glossary at the end of the book. For anyone intending to visit, addresses and websites of shippers and producers are included. Chapter 8 gives directions for visitors to Oporto and the Douro.In this interactive age I welcome feedback from readers, and I hope that this book will help you to enjoy and appreciate Port and Douro wines to the full.Richard Mayson, Ashford-in-the-Water, Derbyshirewww.richardmayson.com Excerpted from Port and the Douro by Richard Mayson All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.