Chair du Rhône was a commissioned project for Côtes du Rhône's exhibition "The Rhône Touch". This exhibition took place at Central Saint Martin's Theatre Bar for two weeks and revolved around the wines from Côtes du Rhône appellation of the Rhône wine region in France.
For the exhibition, three multi-sensory armchairs were created that represented three different wine of the region (Côte Rôtie, Crozes Hermitage, and Condrieu). These armchairs were all upholstered with fabrics that would represent how the wines felt on the pallet. Each chair had it's own mechanism that would trigger smells as people sat down that would enhance the wine they were drinking.
The purple chair represented Côte Rôtie. This wine has a rich yet smooth feel on the pallet, so the chair was upholstered with soft velvet. The scents used in the chair was rose and patchouli. The mechanism for this chair featured fan connected to a fan that the person sitting in the chair could spin to blow the scent towards them.
The cream chair represented Crozes Hermitage. With the fabric used to upholster this chair matched the colour of the wine. The scent for this chair was pine which was pushed through pipes and out through a gramophone horn. The mechanism for this chair consisted of a set of bellows that when a person sat in the chair they would push down on the bellows that would then activate the scents.
The green chair represented Condrieu. The chair was upholstered in soft, light green fabric that represented the light flavour and slight green tone of the wine. The scent for this chair was musk that was also filtered through tubes, but this time out through a funnel. The mechanism for this chair was a chemistry set in the back that would react to the air and scent being pushed through the tubes as a person sat down.