Hazendal Launches Limited-edition Prestige Brut By Athi-patra Ruga TO Support SA Arts

Hazendal Wine Estate is proud to launch the Artist Series | Limited Edition label. Under the curatorial vision of Khanyisile Mbongwa, the Estate commissioned renowned South African artist, Athi-Patra Ruga, to create the original artwork for the label of the Prestige Brut Cap Classique 2017.

In a limited-edition of only 1500 bottles worldwide, the label was created for the Hazendal Prestige Brut Cap Classique of the 2017 harvest. The wine is an elegant blend of 62% chardonnay and 38% pinot noir made from the estate’s grapes, held for seven years on the lees and degorged with zero dosage in 2024. Set within a hand-crafted African pine chest and accompanied by a curatorial booklet, the collectible wine will be available for order on May 12th, 2025.

The Artist Series | Limited Edition bottle is a nuanced harmonisation between important art and exceptional wine. A leading voice in South African wine writing, Malu Lambert notes that “the vibrant packaging hints to the bottle’s energetic contents” and gave the Cap Classique a splendid 94/100 score, with international critics echoing the review.

For enquiries in South Africa, please contact Prosper Gundura at prosper.gundura@hazendal.co.za, or call +27 (0) 21 903 5034.

For enquiries in United Kingdom and Europe, please contact Daniel Grigg of Museum Wines at daniel@museumwines.co.uk, or call +44 (0) 125 883 0122.

Critics’ Scores

“The vibrant packaging hints to the bottle’s energetic contents… Fresh, with plenty more tertiary development to come this will age gracefully for a number of years. Drink to 2030.”

94/100, Malu Lambert

“Quite possibly the most champagne-like Cap Classique I have ever tasted…”

18.5/20, Tamlyn Currin for Jancis Robinson

“Beautiful harmony and balance marry seamlessly with a complex autolytic character…”

95+/100, Greg Sherwood for A Fine Wine Safari

“It’s dry and quite linear, but rich at the same time… Lovely complexity…”

94/100, Dr. Jamie Goode for Wine Anorak

Athi-Patra Ruga

“Resting within the wine’s label, the coil of the embryonic human embodies the threshold one crosses as they unfurl this vintage Cap Classique. In a bubbly barrel, the avatar awaits the opulent emancipation of a champagne flute – the fur tassels moving in an anticipatory traditional Zulu and Nguni dance that lends its name to this work – Indlamu.”

– Athi-Patra Ruga

Khanyisile Mbongwa

“I am fascinated by how Ruga uses myth-making as a modern archaeological tool to examine the repetition of historical violence while crafting narratives of possibility… Indlamu emerges like a mythical creature, its body serving as a vessel of cross-generational wisdom, which we witness unfurling through gestures, provocations, and invitations.”

– Khanyisile Mbongwa

Hazendal Festival

With a commitment to engage and form part of contemporary Africa’s unique and complex multi-cultural context, in 2024 the Estate founded the annual Hazendal Festival. Guided by the vision and provocation of an invited curator, the festival brings together artists, scientists and cultural practitioners to think and create alongside each other. The Artist Series | Limited Edition label emerges from the intellectual, artistic and spiritual dynamics of the festival with the curator commissioning a highly relevant artist to reflect on the creative harvest of the given year’s festival through a single work of art. The inaugural edition was dedicated to the incredible life-fostering qualities of soil. With the hope to grow a meaningful tradition of an annual festival, the Estate sought to attend to the cross-cultural meanings of the land on which it operates.

The profits from the Artist Series | Limited Edition will be in entirety dedicated to supporting the arts, culture and science industries of South Africa. The Estate is donating 5 percent of all sales to the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, and the remaining profits are committed to the organisation of the next edition of the Hazendal Festival, which will take place in early December 2025.