![]() ![]() I’ve curated a selection of four Crown Royal whiskies: two are core releases, and two are one-offs that give a glimpse of what’s possible from the Gimli distillery when they’re not blending for the mass market. In this review I’ll explore some of the Crown Royal lineup. It’ll be carbon neutral and zero waste, but will only produce 20 million litres of absolute alcohol per year, compared to Gimli’s 33 million. ![]() The new distillery will work in tandem with Gimli to support rising demand. These days Crown Royal is a growing brand and Diageo has announced plans for a new quarter-billion dollar distillery in Ontario to keep up with planned volume increases. Sometimes when blending mass market whisky for consistency, this gets lost and the quality of the parts may be greater than shown in the final product. Skilled blenders highlight the strengths of each component while minimising the weaknesses. ![]() They use their skills to assemble unique top-tier releases, but also must ensure ultra-tight consistency in the day-to-day blending of core range products.Ī good blend can indeed be greater than the sum of its parts. With this brand lies the state of the art in Canadian blending – the blenders responsible for Crown Royal are recognized as the best in the business. There’s a lot of enthusiasm for the brand at both ends of the Canadian whisky intelligentsia spectrum, but not so much with the middle ground drinkers. I’ll admit I’m a bit surprised that my Canadian whisky journey has not yet shone the spotlight on Crown Royal. “Coffey Rye” flavouring whisky: Starts the same as the bourbon style, but undergoes a second distillation in Gimli’s special Coffey still, which is only operated once per year. ![]() Rye flavouring whisky: A mash of 95% rye and 5% malted barley distilled in a two column continuous stills.īourbon style flavouring whisky: Similar to American bourbon, this whisky is a mash of 64% corn, 31.5% rye, and 4.5% malted barley, distilled once through a column still. Similar to normal pot distillation, cuts are made with heads and tails discarded. After fermentation and the first column still run, it goes for a second distillation in a hybrid still, which is a copper pot still with a column still on top. Corn is cooked in a continuous process and distilled in a four-column still.īatch corn base whisky: Light corn whisky. These five whiskies are:Ĭontinuous corn base whisky: Light corn whisky. Today, more than 1.5 million barrels of spirit sit in the distillery’s warehouses.Ī blender’s paradise, the Gimli distillery produces five different spirit types: two different corn base whiskies and three flavouring whiskies (for brief refresher on Canadian whisky methods see my previous review). Originally built by Seagram’s in the 1960s to supplement output from the Waterloo distillery, the plant was sold to Diageo in 2001. Known simply as Diageo Global Supply – Gimli, the vast, multi-warehouse complex – is about an hour’s drive north of Winnipeg. The distillery mainly responsible for this output is located in Gimli, Manitoba, a town of only a few thousand people. Today, Crown Royal is Canada’s top-selling whisky brand, to the tune of eight million cases a year globally. No surprises then from a man who considered prohibition to be an excellent business opportunity, when “Mister Sam” leveraged his connections to get several cases of Crown Royal onboard the train that transported the royal couple across the country during their month-long trip. The original Crown Royal blended whisky was created by Canadian whisky legend Sam Bronfman to celebrate King George VI and Queen Elizabeth’s royal tour of Canada in 1939. However, among the millions of barrels resting on the icy shores of Lake Winnipeg, there are said to be many treasures. Many Canadian whisky experts seem to hold the Diageo-Gimli distillery in high regard, but their bread and butter is best served in a Crown and Coke. ![]()
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