Wine Tour of Grabouw and Elgin Valley

Grabou and Elgin Located 65 km south east of Cape Town over Sir Lowry’s pass along the N2 highway. Grabouw is the commercial centre for Elgin Valley The largest single export fruit-producing area in South Africa. The Original inhabitants of the area were the Khoi Khoi pastoralists and the San hunter gatherers. The Dutch colonists settled in the area in the 1600’s dispossessing the natives of their land. The town was created on the farm Grietjiesgat in 1856 by Wilhelm Langschmidt a painter from Cape Town who named Grabouw after its birthplace in Germany. The early 1900’s saw the development of the deciduous fruit farming become the town’s main economic growth engine and now the hub of South Africa’s export of apples and pears. By the end of the 20th century there was a market shift in the balance of the economy with the introduction of viticulture and planting of new vineyards and a significant increase in tourism.