Joseph James Forrester, later Baron Forrester, was one of the great pioneers of the Port industry and the Douro in the 19th Century. Born in 1809 he moved to Portugal in 1831 to work for Offley Forrester and stayed there until he died when the boat he was travelling in capsized at the Cachão de Valeira on the Douro.
In the 1840s, Forrester produced two maps of the Douro. The first, published in 1843 and revised in 1844 shows the demarcated zone with the prominent quintas of the period being marked. The second, published in 1848 is monumental piece of cartography, although perhaps of less interest to the Port drinker. It shows the whole of the Douro from the coast to the Spanish border and is about 10' long.
A digitalised version of the 1844 map is available to browse with Google Maps. It includes notes on the major Port Quintas.
Higher resolution images of the map are also available to download as a jpeg (11776x5335px, 16MB) or a tiff (11776x5335px, 55MB).
