Spirits for Spring
by Mary Bailey
Best in show
Bridgeland founders Daniel Plenzik (L) and Jacques Tremblay
Meet the Best Canadian Whisky at the 2023 Alberta Beverage Awards, the Bridgeland Single Blend Whisky. Bridgeland Distillery owners Jacques Tremblay and Daniel Plenzik met at a distiller’s workshop in 2016. They were both interested in starting something around brandy and whisky. In 2018 they left their full-time jobs (both were engineers) and built the distillery. One of the first things they did was purchase a copper pot still, the “best piece for whisky and brandy,” says Jacques. “Although brandy is grape-based and whisky is grain-based there are a lot of similar processes. Our goal was to make both. We wanted to produce an original product, a reflection of our terroir. We are right next to the Rockies and chinooks create drastic changes in temperature and barometric pressure, which has a big effect on the barrel aging. We source grains locally—barley from the Hamills in Penhold; wheat, rye and oats from Red Shed Malting in Red Deer County and corn from Molnar’s Farm in Taber. But we make the brandy like they do in Cognac. We distill the wines (Gewurztraminer from St. Hubertus in the Okanagan and California Moscato Canelli) then age separately in oak.”
Bridgeland’s 15 different products (four expressions of whisky and three of brandy, plus grappa, honey liqueur, and ready-to-drink cocktails), are available at over 40 different liquor stores in Edmonton, including Color de Vino, Sherbrooke, Wine and Beyond and Vines Riverbend.
Tasting Tesseron
Emilien Bouchab, Tesseron Cognac at the Confederation Lounge, Fairmont Hotel Macdonald
Cognac from this highly-regarded, small-production, family-owned company is in great demand. Allocations around the world are measured in dozens of bottles not thousands of cases. Emilien Bouchab (Director Americas) led a tasting of these fantastic spirits earlier this year.
Composition VSOP is the bottling you are most likely to find on the back bar. An outstanding VSOP, subtle, harmonious with finesse, and very very drinkable. Then we get into the aged expressions. The Lot No 90 XO Ovation has amazing depth, complexity and length with intriguing limey citrus notes. The Lot No 53 XO Perfection has amazing savoury notes, salinity, dark chocolate and oatmeal, with a lengthy finish. The Lot No 29 XO Exception was crazy—vivacious, lively, penetrating yet subtle. And, if this matters to you, the only Cognac Robert Parker has ever given 100 points. Spectacular.
Jason Gredainus loves rum and rhumb
Jason Gredainus of Grey Dog Distilling with Casey, his 11-year-old Labrador mix
You could say it comes with the territory. Jason is a sailor and he opened Grey Dog Distilling after a long career in the Canadian Navy. Naval references abound, from the name of the distillery to the names of the spirits—Sea Dog Spiced Rhumb, Main Brace Rhumb and Flagship Oaked Rhumb. Jason is an experienced brewer and distiller who uses Alberta beet sugar and puts together his signature aromatics from dried concentrates. “Hobby distilling is legal in Nova Scotia for personal consumption,” he says. “I made my own still out of a beer keg. When I moved back here (I grew up in Edmonton) I decided to start the business.” The Sea Dog Spiced Rhumb was a Judges Selection (out of a crowded field) at the 2023 Alberta Beverage Awards. Why rhumb? “Rum has to use cane sugar and be aged a minimum of one year. I wanted to use Alberta-grown products and have more flexibility in aging.”
Find Grey Dog Rhumbs at Sherbrooke, Crossroad and Little Guy Liquor Co. in Sherwood Park and at various Safeway and Sobeys Liquor stores.