Honoring American AgCredit Sweepstake winners

SPARKLING SWEEPSTAKE

Breathless Wines (Calif.), Sonoma County Blanc de Noirs

Penny GaddCoster is an acclaimed winemaker and expert in Méthode Champenoise sparkling wine production. She brings her soughtafter expertise to numerous wine brands as Executive Director of Winemaking at Rack & Riddle and is the founding winemaker of Breathless Wines.

Her career began 35 years ago at Jordan Winery, followed by J Vineyards & Winery and then Rack & Riddle in 2007. She has mentored under the likes of Rob Davis, André Tchelistcheff, Oded Shakked and Raphaël Brisbois.

She was honored with two Sweepstakes awards for Best Sparkling/Specialty wine at the Sonoma County Harvest Fair (2013 and 2018), Best of Show Sparkling at the 2019 Sunset International Wine Competition, Best of Show Sparkling and Best of Sonoma at the 2019 Harvest Challenge, and most recently, Sweepstakes for Best Sparkling Wine at the 2020 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition.

GaddCoster was a winning panelist at the 2015 Women in Wine event in Napa, held by Women for WineSense. She was also named “Winemaker of the Year” in the inaugural 2013 Wine Industry Awards, honoring her significant contributions to winemaking. This was an incredible achievement, as contenders included top winemakers from Sonoma, Napa and the greater Bay Area.

WHITE SWEEPSTAKE

Trader Moon Wine Company (Calif.), 2018 California Honey Moon Viognier,

Jesse Pender was raised in southwest Missouri on a beef cattle farm in the rolling hills of the Ozark highlands. His curiosity about business and finance lead to him pursuing a degree in the sciences. He earned a degree in economics from Missouri University of Science and Technology in 2005.

While attending college, Pender worked for a small local winery attending to the vines and crafting small lot wines. This parttime college job sparked a new passion and lead to his pursuit of making wine full time.

Pender’s passion for winemaking flourished over the next 18 years. He held the role as winemaker and vineyard manager for several small wineries in the states of Delaware, Tennessee, Oklahoma and New Zealand.

In 2011, his passion to make wine lead him to California in pursuit of winemaking in the largest wine producing state. He joined Delicato Family Vineyards as an assistant winemaker in 2014 and was promoted to winemaker in 2016.

When not working in the cellar or vineyards, Pender enjoys spending times visiting the National Parks throughout the U.S., tasting wines at wineries throughout the state, playing golf, reading, and going to the gym.