“Tradition, innovation, terroir,” is the tagline at Bridgeland Distillery in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and it’s a mantra that would fit at many craft distilleries across North America. Drilling down into how they do it at Bridgeland reveals a team with in-depth knowledge of traditional spirits—and when to break the rules in the service of local flavor and hands-on pragmatism.
Daniel Plenzik and Jacques Tremblay founded Bridgeland in 2018, and since then they’ve been producing whiskeys in various styles—American, Canadian, Irish, and Scotch—as well as grape-driven brandies, grappas—or “eaux de vigne”—and even Chinese-inspired baijiu.
While many of their spirits are terroir-driven—Bridgeland’s single-malt whiskey can trace its barley to a single section of land 75 minutes from the distillery—other products involve rethinking what those spirits can be, using the resources they have at hand to add character and value.