Richard Mayson (writer)

Richard Mayson (born 1961) is a British author and expert on fortified wines and the wines of Iberia. He is the series editor for the Infinite Ideas Wine Library.

Mayson entered the wine trade in 1984 and spent five years working for the Wine Society, the world's oldest mail-order wine club. In 1987 he was awarded the Worshipful Company of Vintners' Scholarship and spent three months in the vineyards of Iberia.

Mayson is the author of five books relating to the wine of Portugal, was associate editor of Oz Clarke's "Wine Atlas" and currently writes the entries on Port and Madeira for The Oxford Companion to Wine. He also lectures for the Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET) and Leith's School of Food and Wine in London.

In 1999 he was made a Cavaleiro of the Confraria do Vinho do Porto in recognition of his services to the port wine trade. He is currently the regional chairman for Port and Madeira wines for the annual Decanter World Wine Awards (DWWA).

Mayson was educated at Uppingham School, Rutland. He graduated from the University of Sheffield (BA Hons. Geography) in 1983. In 2013 he was appointed as a lay member of Council of the University of Sheffield where he Chairs the Alumni Board. On 1 August 2017 Richard Mayson becomes Pro-Chancellor of the University of Sheffield.

In 2004 Richard Mayson won the André Simon Award for his book The Wines and Vineyards of Portugal.

He received The Louis Roederer Award as Wine Feature Writer of the Year for a series of articles in The World of Fine Wine magazine in 2013/14.

"Madeira, The Islands and their Wines" was shortlisted for the 2016 André Simon Award.

• Portugal's Wines and Wine-Makers: Port, Madeira and Regional Wines (1992), Wine Appreciation Guild, ISBN 978-0932664808
• The Story of Dow’s Port 1798-1998 (1998), (Silva & Cosens), Kingston Upon Thames: Seagrave Foulkes, ASIN B000JUEZWU
• Port and the Douro (1999, 2004, 2013), Infinite Ideas, ISBN 978-1908984173
• The Wines and Vineyards of Portugal (2003), Mitchell Beazley, ISBN 978-1840007336
• Madeira, the Islands and their Wines (2015), Infinite Ideas ISBN 978-1-908984-30-2