Port wine
One vocal critic of the Douro Wine Company was the British winemaker Joseph James Forrester. Despite being British, Forrester was well integrated into the Portuguese community and even received the title "Baron" for his work in defending the Portuguese wine growers and creating the first extensive maps of the Douro river and its wine region. In his 1844 pamphlet "A Word or Two about Port Wine" he criticized the Douro Wine Company for its control over the Port wine industry and its encouragement of producers to add substantial amounts of brandy to the wine. In Forrester's view, the best wines of the Douro were "natural"-meaning without fortification or, if used, in very small amounts. With its monopolistic control over the brandy used in fortification, it was in the Douro Wine Company's interest to encourage extensive fortification.