A CEO’s midnight schedule: Avaline, travel, and wine

Jennifer Purcell’s – Jennifer Purcell, 46-year-old CEO of Avaline Wines, describes her tightly managed workday—from early-morning check-ins to late-night compliance paperwork—and the travel routine that comes with running a global wine brand. She moved from Los Angeles to New York

At 6:15 a.m., Jennifer Purcell is already looking down at her phone.

She wakes around 6:15 or 6:30 a.m. after moving from Los Angeles to New York City. and the first thing she does is check messages and her day. Avaline Wines has an employee in Europe, so the inbox can arrive before the coffee does. Then comes email and a calendar scan—an early start built for a company that moves on both time zones and timelines.

Purcell doesn’t treat the morning as optional. She built her career across investment banking, distressed debt, and private equity before jumping into the startup world. She later became VP of finance and corporate strategy at Thrive Market. and it was networking that brought her into contact with Katherine Power and Cameron Diaz. who were forming a yet-to-be-launched wine brand called Avaline. Purcell joined them as CFO a few months before the company launched. About two years in—she became CEO in 2022. when the board elevated her to run the company—she has been leading the business ever since.

Her schedule shows the shape of that responsibility: fitness and nutrition in the morning, Zoom-heavy work in the middle of the day, compliance and documentation at the end, and travel that can stretch across continents before midnight checks roll into the next morning.

At 7 a.m., the day shifts gears. Purcell walks her dog—she has a lazy Shih Tzu mix. but he’s active when it’s time to go out. She lives in the Financial District. takes him down to where the Tin Building used to be. and lets him have off-leash time. visits with other dogs. and runs around for 30 to 45 minutes. While they walk. she listens to podcasts to catch up on news: The New York Times’ The Daily and NPR’s Up First.

World events have become part of the business rhythm, not background noise. She specifically watches tariff announcements. dollar-to-euro volatility. and changes in global shipping routes and pricing because they can affect Avaline’s business. By 8 a.m. she’s in motion at the gym—either a private Pilates session with her trainer or an Equinox HIIT or treadmill running class—then stopping at Earthbar at Equinox for a Muscle Up smoothie with spinach. She’s also hooked on matcha and says she makes at least two per day. adding that it’s the only caffeine she drinks.

The next hours are for “focused and creative” work. Most of her work is from home. but she has a coworking space in Flatiron where she tries to hold in-person meetings with people in the city. Most Avaline employees and the executive team are on the West Coast. so after she gets ready. she has a few hours before the daily pinging starts.

Purcell uses that window to review documents. decks. or financials and to think through strategy—what the team needs to do. what they’re focused on now. and what could be improved. She also treats the quiet time as coverage for a staffing reality at the top. For the past 18 months or so. Avaline has had at least one empty seat on its executive team. which means she has often been running another department alongside her own job. She tries to counter the screen time with small breaks, including playing fetch with her dog.

By 12 p.m., Zoom meetings begin and they don’t stop. Most of her working day is spent in Zoom meetings. including one-on-ones at least quarterly with every person at the company. She also meets daily with at least one member of the exec team to talk about what’s happening. what they need her help with. and what blocks they’re facing. External meetings add another layer—new production, new products, new markets, and distributors.

Purcell says she works closely with both Katherine Power and Cameron Diaz on everything from long-term strategy to new product launches. She describes them as “incredibly hands-on. ” including tasting potential new wines. weighing in on packaging and label design. and meeting with distributors and retail partners.

For stress, she relies on breathing techniques—exhales longer than inhales—and when she’s really stressed, she walks outside with her dog. She says even a 15-minute walk in the sun helps her reset her mindset: “we can figure this out and make it work.”

Lunch, she says, comes late. Because she’s working more West Coast hours, she eats lunch between two and four. It’s usually grab-and-go: a salad from the fridge, a protein bar, or a smoothie.

At 4 p.m., she moves to the less fun parts of the job. Her assistant books time at the end of the day for tasks she least enjoys. including reviewing and signing documents and working on alcohol regulation compliance. Purcell describes tackling these items once the day’s creative energy has run out as easier than trying to force creativity later.

By 7 p.m., she tries to be done with meetings. Dinner happens most nights, and she orders groceries on Instacart because she never knows when she’ll be around to cook. While she’s cooking, she has a glass or two of wine. She calls her favorite Avaline wine Sauvignon Blanc from Bordeaux.

There’s also a deliberate pause: her boyfriend and she make a point of sitting down properly at the dining table without phones and talking about their days. After that, they watch something on the couch with the dog that doesn’t require a lot of brainpower.

But her schedule doesn’t always end cleanly. Because of Avaline’s global team, she says she usually ends up going back to her computer a few times at night.

At 9:30 p.m., she winds down and prepares for the next day. She loves reading nonfiction and is currently reading Gisèle Pelicot’s book “A Hymn to Life: Shame Has to Change Sides.” The last thing she does every night is check her schedule for the next day and make sure she’s prepared. If she needs reading or data digging for a specific meeting. she will do it that evening or set herself up to do it first thing in the morning. She goes to sleep around 10 or 10:30 p.m.

Her work is often shaped by travel, too. She travels up to three weeks every month and says it could be anywhere—listing cities from a recent stretch that included Miami. Las Vegas. San Diego. Los Angeles. Sonoma County. San Francisco. and Chicago. The trips are for retailers, distributors, events, activations, and planning sessions with other team members. Her distributor is in Miami. and she adds that all of Avaline’s grapes are grown in Europe. so she goes there as well.

She packs only a carry-on and says she refuses to get to the airport early. Her goal is to get there and walk straight onto the plane—which also means she misses flights from time to time.

When she does miss one, Purcell says she immediately rebooks through the airline app and figures out the next best option. Because she travels frequently, having airline status gives her more flexibility when plans change.

For jet lag. she says she has been asking ChatGPT to create a schedule for her: when to drink caffeine. when to try to nap. when to stay up. and when to get sunlight. She tries to follow it as closely as she can. She also practices good sleep hygiene—she keeps a very dark room. prefers a cold environment. and avoids screens right before bed. She listens to a sleep story on the Calm app and puts on white noise afterward. If she wakes up in the middle of the night and can’t go back to sleep. she gets up and reads until she feels tired again.

Under her routine is a straightforward commitment: keep the brand moving across continents without letting the calendar swallow the person. Purcell’s day is packed with phone checks. podcasts. gym time. Zoom meetings. and compliance work—then topped off with a Bordeaux Sauvignon Blanc and an intentional dinner conversation. When the travel calendar breaks. she has built a counter-routine around rebooking. sunlight. naps. and sleep discipline—so the next morning can begin on time again.

Avaline Wines Jennifer Purcell CEO routine Cameron Diaz Katherine Power wine business jet lag ChatGPT schedule airline status compliance Sauvignon Blanc global shipping tariffs dollar-to-euro volatility