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<\/p>\nA Calgary distillery has been forced to pull some of its award-winning spirits off store shelves after running afoul of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA).<\/p>\n
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Bridgeland Distillery<\/a> produces some popular brandies and whiskies<\/a>, including a corn-based whisky called Berbon<\/a>, and a Taber corn-mash spirit that\u2019s only aged for a year, so can\u2019t legally be called whisky which needs to be aged for three years.<\/p>\n The Berbon and the corn mash together make up about 50 per cent of sales for the distillery, which has been in business for about seven years.<\/p>\n But on June 27, 2025, the owners were informed by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency that someone, who is still unknown to the distillery owners, had filed a complaint about the spirits they were selling.<\/p>\n \u201cSo the CFIA came. They came and inspected. They asked us a bunch of questions regarding the product itself and which was our Tabor corn bourbon spelled B E R B O N, which is a corn mash spirit,\u201d said Daniel Plenzik, co-owner of Bridgeland Distillery.<\/p>\n Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n \u201cThey indicated that we were trying to mislead our customers into thinking it was a bourbon. We were in disagreement because bourbon whiskey, spelled B-O-U-R-B-O-N, is not allowed to be labelled on a bottle. Our spelling (B-E-R-B-O-N) is associated with the town of Taber, (Alta.), where our corn comes from, along with the barley and the wheat that comes from Penhold, \u201d said Penzik.<\/p>\n The inspectors returned in July looking for more information and told the owners they should hear from the CFIA in September.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\tThe co-owner of Bridgeland Distillery, Daniel Plenzik, says he hopes the dispute with the CFIA is all \u201cjust a misunderstanding or a misinterpretation\u201d of the rules surrounding sales of the spirits.\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\tGlobal News\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \u201cWe heard nothing until Feb. 4, two weeks ago, when the CFIA got us on the phone, read the inspection report, and told us we need to pull off the shelf all that product until the infractions are basically corrected,\u201d said Jacques Tremblay, the distillery\u2019s other co-owner, who insists there are no health concerns with the product that have been identified.<\/p>\n Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n He claims the CFIA said it would consider the company\u2019s claims, but it has been almost two weeks and still there\u2019s no resolution.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tGet breaking National news<\/p>\n For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen.<\/p>\n \u201cOn the use of bourbon, we explained our rationale, why we spell it the way it is,\u201d said Tremblay.<\/p>\n \u201cThe word B-O-U-R-B-O N is not on the label,\u201d said Penzik.\u00a0 \u201cBourbon is not a geographical identifier like we would say champagne or cognac.\u00a0 Can\u2019t spell champagne with an S (or) Cognac with a K. That would be misleading because those are geographical identifiers.<\/p>\n \u201cBourbon can be made anywhere in the U.S.,\u201d claims Penzik.\u00a0 \u201cThere is no geographical identification as long as you do not use the word B-O-U-R-B-O-N.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\tCalgary-based Bridgeland Distillery has won a number of awards for the spirits it produces and sells.\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\tGlobal News\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n Plenzik said the distillery has made some corrections to social media posts to comply with the CFIA\u2019s concerns, but hasn\u2019t had to make any changes to the actual labels on the bottles because the spirit is sold as Berbon.<\/p>\n Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n But the distillery owners are still waiting to hear back again from the CFIA.<\/p>\n When contacted by Global News, the CFIA provided a statement that reads:<\/p>\n \u201cThe Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) received a complaint regarding products from Bridgeland Distillery. A complaint investigation was completed to determine if there were any compliance issues and to verify that regulatory standards for distilled beverages were followed. CFIA is working with the company to review the inspection findings and determine next steps.\u201d<\/p>\n The owners hope it is all \u201cjust a misunderstanding.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cA misinterpretation of the rules, said Plenzik. \u201cOur issue is that there was no discussion.\u00a0 It was just handed down. You must put these products in detention because that is our process.\u00a0 So we are basically being told we are guilty before any sort of ability to be proven innocent.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI say, well, the CFIA has some real issues with their own processes and need their own corrective actions,\u201d Plenzik added.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t1:59 \n\t\t© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Calgary distillery has been forced to pull some of its award-winning spirits off store shelves after running…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":495182,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194293],"tags":[198693,198694,198692,49,2798,48,198695,46],"class_list":["post-495181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-calgary","tag-berbon","tag-bourbon","tag-bridgeland-distillery","tag-ca","tag-calgary","tag-canada","tag-distillery","tag-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=495181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495181\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/495182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=495181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=495181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=495181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"For](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1767930311_275_national.jpg\")
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAlberta \u2018Whisky Act\u2019 excites provincial distillers\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n