Crown Royal /

Crown Royal is a blended Canadian whisky, 40% alcohol by volume, 80 proof. The brand is currently owned by Diageo, who purchased it when the Seagram portfolio was dissolved in the year 2000. It is the top-selling Canadian whisky in the United States. The reigning monarch King George VI, and his wife, Queen Elizabeth, visited Canada in 1939. Crown Royal was introduced that year by Seagram as a tribute to the royal visit. It was available only in Canada until 1964. Today, Crown Royal is produced solely at the Crown Royal distillery at Gimli, on the shores of Lake Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. It was also produced in Waterloo, Ontario until the plant there closed in 1992. Daily production of Crown Royal uses 10,000 bushels of grain and requires 750,000 imperial gallons (3,400,000 L; 900,000 US gal) of water. The whisky produced at the Manitoba distillery is stored in 2 million barrels, stored in 46 warehouses, over 5 acres (2 ha) of land. The whisky is then blended and bottled in Amherstburg, Ontario. 2006 sales of Crown Royal amounted to over US $500M. In January, 2007, production of Crown Royal was nearly interrupted as a result of a labour dispute at the Gimli distillery. Fifty-two