Two Limestone Coast locals honoured on state stage

THEY might not have taken out the top award in their respective categories but two inspiring and hard working Limestone Coast women were finalists in The Advertiser Woman of the Year Awards.

RISING STAR – JESS TRESSIDER

This young South Australian has a life perspective and swag of academic, business and community accolades that belie her age. At just 20, Jess Tressider is an established entrepreneur, having already set up and sold a successful business, and is a proud recipient of the Governor of South Australia’s Commendation Award. She is both a research assistant at the Ehrenberg Bass Institute as well as an intern at Kicker Communications and is studying a double degree in business marketing and neuropsychology. The poised former student spent her formative teenage years in various foster care arrangements and said that without the support and stability she was provided as a teenager by her carers, she wouldn’t have flourished as she has.

HOSPITALITY HERO – SUE BELL

Sue Bell is a deep thinking winemaker from Bellwether in Coonawarra. Her wines are specifically selected climate appropriate varietal matches. While she loves the classics, Ms Bell also dabbles with emerging Mediterranean varieties. She’s won a number of medals and trophies and was named Australian Society of Viticulture & Oenology Winemaker of the year in 2014 and nominated for Gourmet Traveller Winemaker of the year in 2021. Since establishing her small winery and cellar door in 2008, Ms Bell has encouraged other Australian winegrowers to see the parallels between their love of the country they work with and Indigenous culture.