Wine & Dance

Calendar Design For Wine Education

client: Les Clos Elysées

This project explores a design question: How can a visual object support wine education without feeling like advertising?

The brief from Les Clos Elysées was a 2026 calendar that could hang on a customer’s wall for a year without selling anything, building taste literacy through repetition.

The Wine & Dance calendar on a desk stand and hanging on a wall

Calendar cover, The Rhythm of Wine, beside six month pages pairing wines with dances

Concept

During my WSET studies, I began to notice that wine merchants do more than sell bottles. They educate customers, host tastings, and introduce wine culture gradually.

The result is a conceptual 2026 calendar that pairs wine categories with dance styles, translating flavour profiles into rhythm and movement.

The calendar becomes not only a promotional object, but also a cultural tool that invites people to experience wine through visual storytelling.

All twelve month pages of the calendar side by side, each with a dancer, a bottle and a glass in that month’s colours

Twelve Pairings

One wine and one dance for each month, following the seasons: Port and Tango in January, then Cabernet Sauvignon and Rumba, Rosé and Ballet, Pinot Grigio and Contemporary, Moscato and Waltz, Sauvignon Blanc and Samba, Riesling and Jazz, Chardonnay and Flamenco, Merlot and Bolero, Pinot Noir and Folk Dance, Syrah or Shiraz and Paso Doble, and Sherry and Slow Foxtrot in December.

Each pairing turns a flavour profile into a movement. The illustrations and colours shift across the year, so the page on the wall works as a taste reference as much as a date-keeper.

August page: Chardonnay and Flamenco, a dancer in a flared skirt above a gold bottle and glass, with the month’s grid and wine dates

October page: Pinot Noir and Folk Dance, a dancer in red beside a dark red bottle and glass

December page: Sherry and Slow Foxtrot, a pair of dancers in brown beside a sherry bottle and glass

Month Pages

The dancers and the bottle and glass silhouettes are drawn by hand. Under each month’s grid, the page marks Canadian holidays, wine festivals and wine days, such as the start of the Napa Valley harvest, Pinot Noir Day and National Red Wine Day in August.

Exploration board for the first direction: line drawings of animals in winter, with notes on line-less negative space

Mood board of dancers, dance sketches and wine glasses

Pencil sketches of dancers on grid paper, January to June

Pencil sketches of bottles, glasses and dancers, July to December

Early layout test with a cut-out photo of a flamenco dancer beside the words Chardonnay and Flamenco, a glass and a bottle

Process

Two directions came first: a set of animals in winter drawn in line-less negative space, and a pairing of dances and wines in a gouache or watercolour style. Each board noted its appeal, the animals for their mood and fun, dance and wine for the qualities they share. The dance and wine direction became the calendar.

Research on dance and wine set the mood. Each month started as a pencil sketch pairing one wine with one dance, from January to December.

An early test used a cut-out photo of a dancer. The final calendar moved to drawn silhouettes.