Crown Royal is a blended Canadian whiskey brand created by Seagram and owned by Diageo since 2000. Production of Crown Royal is done at Gimli, Manitoba, while the blending and bottling of the whiskey is done in a facility in Amherstburg, Ontario.
The whiskey was introduced in 1939 by Samuel Bronfman for the 1939 royal tour of Canada. The whiskey was sold only in Canada until the 1960s, when it was first introduced to international markets. It is the top-selling brand of Canadian whiskey in the United States.
Crown Royal was introduced in 1939 by Samuel Bronfman, president of Seagram, as a tribute to the 1939 royal tour of Canada of King George VI and his wife, Queen Elizabeth, the first of a reigning monarch to Canada. It was available only in Canada until 1964, being introduced to the United States in the 1960s.
Crown Royal is produced solely at the company’s distillery at Gimli, on the shores of Lake Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The production of Crown Royal uses 10,000 bushels of rye, corn and barley daily, which is sourced from Manitoba and surrounding provinces, and requires 750,000 imperial gallons (3,400,000 l; 900,000 US gal) of water naturally filtered through the limestone beneath the lake.
The whiskey is stored in 1.5 million barrels, located in 50 warehouses over 5 acres (2 ha) of land. It is then blended and bottled in Amherstburg, Ontario.
Crown Royal was also produced in Waterloo, Ontario, until the plant there closed in 1992.
