Elgin, South Africa

[2] Today the Elgin valley is renowned for its apple and pear orchards, its greenhouse cut flowers, its rose growing, and, increasingly, for the production of high quality, cool climate wines.

South Africa is said to be the only southern hemisphere county that produces a top quality Golden Delicious apple, a major advantage against competing exporting countries.

The cool temperatures and plentiful winter rainfall mean that the Elgin basin has a set of conditions for wine growing which are markedly different to those in surrounding areas.

[5][6][7][8] The region is historically significant for South Africa's wine history also because it had one of the earliest movements towards Black ownership of vineyards and wineries.

[9] Today, the town of Grabouw, in the heart of the vast Elgin Valley, is the commercial centre for what is the largest single export fruit producing area in Southern Africa.

[10][11] Grabouw was created on the farm Grietjiesgat acquired on 22 November 1856 by Wilhelm Langschmidt, who named the place after Grabow, the village of his birth in Germany.

The name "Grietjiesgat", after the farm owned by the settler Wilhelm Langschmidt, was used for parts of the valley, including the area where the modern town of Grabouw is located.

The indigenous people of the region, the Chainouqua Khoi, inhabited a large area on both sides of the Hottentots Holland Mountains.

They traded with early European settlers, but were later dispossessed from their lands by the Dutch colonists, who began to move into the area in the late 1600s.

The development of the region changed substantially in the early 20th century, with the arrival of several influential families who had an enormous effect on Elgin.

He spent much of the next few years under house arrest on his farm as he was captured by the British soon after signing up as a medical officer with the Boer army.

His internment on Oak Valley was only granted on condition that he paid for the services of two British soldiers to guard him for the duration of the war.

Another progressive local entrepreneur who had an enormous influence on the valley was Kathleen Murray, who was a leader in the Black Sash among other political activities.

[25][26][27] In 1966, on Applethwaite farm, the Franco-Italian immigrant Edmond Lombardi created and introduced to the market a 100% apple-juice beverage, free of additives and preservatives, known as Appletiser.