Elgin

IT’S EARLY MORNING on a clear but chilly day in May and the air above Elgin is filled with all sorts of helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft spraying for fruit fly. In terms of plantings, this is apple and pear country first and wine country a distant second.

The valley, situated some 75km southeast of Cape Town and surrounded by mountains, has more than 6,400ha of apples, nearly 1,500ha of pears and less than 750ha of planted vineyard (down from perhaps 1,000ha a decade ago).

It’s not difficult to understand the focus on deciduous fruit rather than wine