A town nearby
Elgin Valley
Apple country over the pass, and the coolest vineyards in the Cape.
30 minutes from the estate
Over Sir Lowry's Pass and down into a high bowl of orchards. Elgin grows most of South Africa's apples and pears, and the same altitude that suits them turns out to suit chardonnay and pinot noir — it is the coolest wine district in the country.
How it got here
Planted to apples from 1902 by Antonie Viljoen, who worked out that the altitude gave him the winter cold the trees needed. Wine followed nearly a century later.
What to do there
- The Elgin Railway Market, in an old apple warehouse beside the line
- Peregrine Farm Stall on the N2 — the pies are the reason people stop
- Taste the cool-climate chardonnay and pinot noir
- Mountain biking in the Oak Valley and Thandi plantations
Worth knowing
- Blossom is late August into September; harvest is February to April
- It is over a mountain pass — allow for the drive, and for the mist
More near the estate
Everything within about an hour.
