Gimli Distillery
Information
Founded
1968
Location
Gimli, Manitoba
Stills
Column Stills
Production Capacity
33 million litres per year
For reference, consider the relative production of Black Velvet:
83% of Jim Beam's annual capacity
412% of Maker's Mark annual capacity
275% of Glenfiddich annual capacity
377% of Macallan's annual capacity
Favorite bottle Reviewed (95/100):
Overview
Gimli distillery is the home to Crown Royal, Canada's best selling whisky. The massive distillery is in a very small town, with just a population of 2000 people. Many, in fact, assume that Crown Royal is a bourbon and not Canadian, much less from rural Manitoba.
Gimli distillery, much like some other Canadian distilleries, was built because of demand which had outstripped supply for a few different Seagram brands, namely Seagram's VO. Crown Royal, initially, was produced at a Waterloo distillery which stopped production in 1992. Now, nearly all of the production from the plant goes into Crown Royal, though the plant also makes components for the old Seagram's whiskies still in production, like Canadian 83 and Seagram's VO.
The distillery produces a very wide range of products, including 5 different distillates. These distillates are matured in a variety of different barrels - new charred oak, ex-bourbon barrels, and refill barrels, resulting a wide variety of different whiskies produced (you can read more about the distillates here). This is why the blending of Crown Royal can produce such a wide variety of different whiskies - whether more traditional light and sweet Canadian whiskies, rye heavy whiskies, or powerful buttery and oaky whiskies. The distillery is owned by Diageo.
For more information on the history and operation of Gimli, I highly recommend Davin De Kergommeaux's book Canadian Whisky.