Moms are extraordinary at caring for everyone except themselves. Intentional self-care is not indulgence. It is the practice of maintaining your own vitality so that you can continue to show up fully for the people who depend on you and for yourself. Here are ten things worth prioritizing this season.
Table of Contents
1. White Space in Your Calendar
Block an hour that belongs to nothing. White space in a schedule is where restoration actually happens. Guard it with the same conviction you protect your children’s activities.
2. The 2023 Honig Sauvignon Blanc
Wine as genuine self-care means choosing a bottle that you will actually taste rather than just drink. The Honig Sauvignon Blanc from Napa Valley rewards attention: bright citrus, grapefruit, and refreshing crispness in a bottle that makes a Tuesday evening feel like something you chose intentionally.
Photo Credit: InternetWines
3. One Uncompromising Luxury Item
Not the practical version, not the one on sale. One thing this season that you purchase because you deserve quality in your everyday life.
4. Paula Kornell Brut Rose NV: The Celebration You Stop Waiting For
Stop saving sparkling wine for special occasions. The Paula Kornell Brut Rose is one of California’s finest sparkling wines: juicy, creamy, beautifully structured with cranberry, pomegranate, and a fine-bead texture. Open it on a random Friday. That is the point.
Photo Credit: Paula Kornell
5. A Practice That Returns You to Yourself
Not a trend. Something that genuinely reconnects you to who you are when you are not in the role of mother, partner, or obligated person. Journaling, painting, long walks without podcasts, time in water, music, silence: whatever restores something the daily routine depletes.
6. A Wine Rotation Worth Looking Forward To
Build yourself a curated selection of bottles for different moods. The 2023 Teeter-Totter Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley for the evenings when you want something bold and celebratory: blackberry, cassis, mocha, and violet. The 2022 Simon Family Estate Golden Ore Sauvignon Blanc for the white wine moments that deserve something electric and silk-textured. The 2021 Gemstone Facets Cabernet Sauvignon for the evenings when you want to slow down: boysenberry, black currant, floral depth, and mineral character.
Photo Credit: Garys Wine
Photo Credit: Simon Family Estate
Photo Credit: Wine Country Connection
7. Investment in a Relationship That Nourishes You
Choose one friendship that makes you better and invest in it meaningfully this season. Plan something, show up fully, be genuinely present.
8. The 2022 Barnett Merlot Spring Mountain
Great merlot is one of wine’s most underrated pleasures, and the Barnett Spring Mountain is a compelling argument for its renaissance. Silky, concentrated, and beautifully layered with berry fruit, spice, and mineral character, it’s the wine for the evening when you want something rich and satisfying.
Photo Credit: Wine Express
9. A Night That Belongs Entirely to You
A genuine evening of your own choosing: a book, a film you want to see, a long bath, a meal you love. The 2021 Eleven Eleven XI Cabernet Sauvignon Oak Knoll District makes an excellent companion: dense, polished, and layered, it keeps you company beautifully while asking nothing of you but a good glass.
Photo Credit: Wine Enthusiast
10. The Extraordinary Bottles Worth Seeking
The 2022 Gallica Cabernet Sauvignon Oakville Ranch is that kind of wine: a refined, single-vineyard cab with red cherry, herb, pepper, and floral complexity that makes you stop and appreciate. As is the 2015 Go Figure Lot 95 Cabernet Sauvignon, a ten-year-old, fully developed Napa cab right now in a remarkable window of black cherry, leather, violet, espresso, and integrated, silky tannins. And the 2023 Frog’s Leap Jeremiah Cabernet Sauvignon, organic and pure, an expression of Napa Valley viticulture at its most conscientious.
Photo Credit: Gallica Wine
Photo Credit: Garys Wine
Photo Credit: Bottle Values
You don’t need a reason to invest in your own experience. You have already earned it. Begin there.