Mother-Daughter Duo’s Brand Dancing Draws From Winemaking To Create Boundary-Pushing Fragrances

Cloistered in New York City during the pandemic, Cynthia and Lauren Russell longed for an escape to commune with the land and each other. While the Ivy League-educated mother and daughter (Cynthia holds a doctorate in organizational leadership from Columbia University and MBA from Harvard University, and Lauren earned an MBA from Columbia) had no prior background in winemaking, that longing led them to purchase a 12-acre vineyard in Sonoma, Calif., in 2022.

Cynthia and Lauren never previously planned to join forces in business, let alone create Dancing, the limited-edition wine label they launched in 2023. Cynthia spent years working on Wall Street at companies like American Express, and Lauren cut her teeth at Uber Eats, AB InBev and Refinery29. But a sense of adventure, along with their shared love of wine and togetherness, proved too powerful to ignore when they discovered the property in Healdsburg.

“What was so fun was I was at the beginning of my career, and my mom had just sent all her kids away, and we were like, now is the time to do something together,” says Lauren. “It was very serendipitous.”

In fall 2024, they added another serendipitous business achievement to their combined unusual CVs by expanding Dancing into fragrances with a three-product collection designed to encapsulate the essence of their vineyard: Gnarly Vines, Scorched Wood and Midnight Crush. The fragrances are priced at $120 for 50-ml. bottles, while a discovery scent with 5-ml. vials of the scents is $26. Dancing’s fragrances are available at Revolve and the brand’s direct-to-consumer website.

“As we spent more time working with the land, we became really enamored with the sensory experience of being there,” says Lauren. “We wanted to be able to share the experience of the vineyard via the connection between how important aroma is in wine, the emotion and memory and translate that into another product.” She continues, “We tried to develop the scents based on how we experienced the vineyard. Each of them represents some aspect of that.”

Gnarly Vines was inspired by the fertile terrain on the vineyard and the sun’s warmth. It has notes of lemon, bergamot, coconut and fig. “Gnarly Vines was to evoke something my mom loves, which is springtime in the vineyard, when the vines are going through bud break and flowering, all you smell are orange blossoms, California lemons and lots of greenery,” says Lauren. “My mom has always loved a classic scent with a bit of a twist.”

Conjuring up crushing grapes and aging wine, Midnight Crush is a moody, sensual scent featuring white melon, plum, cassis, and cypress. “Every time we would taste our wine with our winemakers, we’d be in a big cave with oak barrels and as soon as you walk into the cave, you’re like, ‘Oh my God, I wish I could bottle this smell,’” Lauren thinks back. “When you walk into a wine cave, it’s a little dank, mossy, earthy, but has grape smells that come through—that’s what we wanted with Midnight Crush.”

The boldest of the scent triad, Scorched Wood is meant to capture the spirit of late harvest nights. Its notes include Brazilian orange and nutmeg mixed with aged leather, red cedar and sandalwood, nodding to the barrels used in winemaking.

“Contrary to my mom, I’ve always been drawn to more unisex, musky scents,” says Lauren. “[Scorched Wood] feels woodsy and has an old-fashioned aroma of spices and oranges that make you feel like you’re having a cocktail or glass of wine. That one to me is emblematic of the trees, but also harvest time when everyone’s up super late celebrating and partying, hence the boozy ethos.”

“We tried to develop the scents based on how we experienced the vineyard.”

Dancing considered about five perfumers to help them concoct its debut fragrances. Until they met Frederick Bouchardy, the founder of Joya Studio known for a fresh, boundary-pushing approach to making scents, there wasn’t a good fit. Lauren recalls encountering an old-world mentality with rigid traditions. “There were so many rules,” she says.

The Russells and Bouchardy spent close to a year developing Dancing’s fragrances. During the process, the focus shifted from mirroring wines to channeling the vineyard. Lauren recounts, “[Frederick] would give us different notes and have us say yes or no without telling us what they were. He was looking for a visceral reaction…The fragrance collection was really based on this desire to keep sharing the magic of the vineyard in different formats.”

Fragrance and wine are going in opposite directions as industries as Americans drink less and douse themselves in perfume more. Last year, wine sales were down about 6% in the United States, according to industry data group SipSource. During the same period, prestige fragrance sales were up 12%, according to market research firm Circana. In the first half of this year, Circana estimates prestige fragrance sales increased 6%.

With strong ties to France, where fragrance and wine are intertwined in the culture, the relationship between wine and fragrance is long held. Kelly + Jones is another brand creating vineyard-inspired fragrances. Rose et Marius sells a collection of perfumes with rosé wine notes. Similar to the method of aging wine, the high-end perfume brand Amouage ages its concentrated Essences for six months.

Dancing has ambitions to place its fragrances in Sephora. Lifestyle, body care and home products are possible assortment extensions. The Russells have invested over $500,000 from their personal savings into vineyard renovation, winemaking, staff, education and product development. They recognize where they lack expertise and hire for it. For example, Dancing has a contracted brand marketer, copywriter and public relations strategist.

Named for Cynthia’s early passion for modern dance, the Russells believe that dancing is a pure form of human expression and has resonance with nature. “We didn’t want to be locked into anything or have people feel defined by something,” says Cynthia. “Dancing opens up your mind to so many possibilities and is entirely personal. We felt both wine and fragrance can be very imposing as far as how you should understand them, and we wanted people to be free to be who they are. The word [dancing] helps you do that: Show up as you are.”

Lauren elaborates, “In both the making of wine and fragrance, everything has to dance together. Both wine and fragrance have notes, a musicality and harmony to how they are made. We want the products to unlock your inner dance and bring people together.”

Feature photo credit: Emma K Creative