Award-winning grain spirit makers are calling on public servants to reverse what they consider an ill-informed cessation order issued by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) that affects their top-selling products. 

Situated at the intersection of Marsh Road NE and Edmonton Trail, the almost eight-year-old Bridgeland Distillery sells everything from single malt whisky to brandy and flavoured liqueurs. 

What sets them apart, however, are three key products that account for more than half of the distillery’s revenue: their Taber Corn Berbon Corn Mash Spirit, Taber Corn Whisky 101, and Berbon Peach Cocktail.

All of their batches use exclusively Canadian ingredients, especially their ‘berbon,’ a phonetic play on words for their bourbon-style spirit distilled with corn sourced from Taber, Alta., which was the basis of a complaint filed against the distillery last June.

Bridgeland Distillery’s co-owner, Daniel Plenzik, said that, after receiving an anonymous tip, the CFIA inspected their property on June 27, 2025. He was told to expect an update by September, but said they didn’t hear back from the agency until Feb. 11, by which time the bottles had already been placed in detention. 

According to an email statement, the CFIA said they are “working with the company to review the inspection findings and determine next steps.”

However, Plenzik said the decision was made abruptly before the distillery had a chance to meet with one of the agency’s supervisors, who was scheduled to call on Feb. 18. 

Even after they connected, Plenzik said the distillery still feels left in the dark about when the detention order will be lifted and has since sought help from government leaders to fast-track the process.

‘We’re following the rules,’ says co-owner

During the call, all parties reviewed the inspection outcome, and Plenzik and his business partner, Jacques Tremblay, said they were shocked to learn that the inspector’s reasoning had changed from what they had been told initially. 

Plenzik said that the distillery was put on the CFIA’s radar because of an Instagram post they had made calling their ‘berbon spirit’ a ‘Northern whisky,’ something the distillery acknowledged as misleading and deleted immediately. 

“We, of course, explained that these kinds of corrections could have been completed prior to placing a product in detention,” he said. 

“Especially when this is not a food safety concern.”

In that conversation, Plenzik and Tremblay explained the story behind their spelling of ‘berbon’ to the agency and said that the phonetic spelling should be accepted when paired with the common name ‘spirit.’

The Government of Canada states that generic terms such as beverage, drink, cooler, spirit, or liquor are acceptable labels for products that do not match the common names outlined by the CFIA, such as bourbon, brandy, or whisky. 

Although businesses must avoid labelling their products with misleading common names, including ones that read similarly to an existing item, Plenzik said that naming their products ‘berbon spirit’ — like their Taber Corn Berbon Corn Mash Spirit — shouldn’t be a problem. 

In the case of the distillery’s Taber Corn Berbon Whisky 101, Plenzik argued that there is no geographical restriction on the words ‘berbon,’ bourbon, or whisky, just the term ‘bourbon whiskey,’ which can only be applied to liquor manufactured in the U.S., according to the Spirit Drinks Trade Act. 

Labelling aside, in response to the CFIA’s point that the distillery’s bourbon-style spirit is crafted like a whisky and should be categorized as such, Plenzik said that this conclusion further highlights a lack of consistency in the agency’s mandate.

“They pick and choose the regulations they read,” said Plenzik. 

“They ignore it in the purpose of calling our product a whisky, and then they say you can’t sell it because it’s not a whisky.”

It’s true that both Bridgeland’s Taber Corn Berbon Corn Mash Spirit and Taber Corn Berbon Whisky 101 are closer to bourbon than whisky, as they both have bases made up of 60 per cent corn. 

According to a 2023 scholarly article by the University of Louisville, bourbon is a spirit that belongs to the broader category of whisky, differentiated only by containing more than 51 per cent corn, along with other ingredients like rye, wheat, or malted barley.

Since other businesses across the country have phonetically named their products adjacent to bourbon, like ‘Canadian Brrrbon,’ a whisky by Ontario company Spirit in Niagara, Plenzik feels that Bridgeland Distillery is being unjustly targeted without proper consultation.

Negotiations a necessary but missing step: Distillery

The distillery said that deliberation between them and the CFIA would have been appreciated before the sales of certain products ceased. 

“I’ve been getting orders, and we have to tell them we can’t, and that’s first of all, embarrassing, because it doesn’t make any sense,” said Plenzik. 

“It’s a big waste of time.”

However, he said that the CFIA stated that placing products in detention is part of its process, and that the distillery’s only option to advocate for itself is to write a corrective action request to the agency. 

Plenzik said they submitted this on the same day, but since the CFIA was unable to provide a timeline, the distillery has continued to ask members of all levels of government to intervene in their support. 

Between emails to notable public servants like Premier Danielle Smith, Mayor Jeromy Farkas, the minister of health, Marjorie Michel, and a visit to Calgary Confederation MP Corey Hogan’s office, Plenzik said they have yet to receive a response. 

For a small business that has had its most popular products — which make up 50 per cent of the distillery’s revenue — barred, he said the lack of transparency and opportunity to discuss the issue has felt like a slap in the face. 

“There’s a whole bunch of things that we’ve done to elevate Alberta and Calgary and Canada,” said Plenzik. 

“And yet, our own government is not supportive.”