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Workers at closing Amherstburg blending and bottling plant say once American water is used, the famous whisky loses Canuck status
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Published Sep 03, 2025 • Last updated 2 hours ago • 5 minute read
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If Crown Royal’s parent company moves production from Ontario to the United States, the famous bottles will no longer be able to boast about this product being a “fine Canadian whisky” — Joe Warmington photoArticle content
Once multinational Diageo shifts it’s Crown Royal whisky blending and bottling operation from Amherstburg, near Windsor, to the United States, the company will no longer honestly be able to include the boast a “Fine Canadian whisky” on its bottles.
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Crown Royal will not longer be 100% produced in Canada anymore.
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“For it to be a Canadian whisky, it has to be made in Canada,” said Doug Benekritis, who has worked inside this beloved and famous 100-year-old plant for 24 years.
Not partially made in Canada. Totally made here.
While booze maker Diageo is owned by global investors like American Blackrock and The Vanguard Group, Crown Royal is world famous for being Canadian. This is now in jeopardy.
Doug Benekritis has worked at the Crown Royal plant in Amherstburg, near Windsor, for 24 years.
A team of 500 in Gimli, Man., have always done a great job of making the whisky while western farmers provide the ingrediants. Then the good people of Amherstburg put the final stamp on this process.
“Our incredible and talented team have always taken a lot of pride in producing it and we will as long as the operation is running,” said Benekritis.
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Diageo has given notice that next February, it will close this plant and send jobs south. But the company has a big problem here because once they do that, it will become a Canadian and American product.
Almost five hours after requesting comment, a Diageo spokesperson emailed, saying “all Crown Royal will continue to be blended in Canada for all markets, including the U.S.” and “under applicable regulations, Crown Royal is Canadian whisky” since “to be labelled Canadian whisky, the whisky must, among other things, be mashed, aged, and distilled in Canada—just as Crown Royal is and will continue to be.”
The company added “the bottling for U.S.-bound Crown Royal will occur at multiple Diageo sites in the U.S. and Canada, and the bottling for Canada-bound Crown Royal will occur in Canada, specifically in Valleyfield, Que., where Crown Royal is already distilled, aged, and bottled” and “consumers will not experience any difference to the Crown Royal they know and love. The formula and recipe, developed and maintained by our master blenders in Canada, remain unchanged, regardless of bottling location.”
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However, Benekritis said the 12 people in the processing department near Windsor know the statement is not realistic and the strategy suggested is not implement`able from either a science and production capacity basis.
“It’s a delectate process to blend Crown Royal whisky and we don’t see any way that process can be augmented to have it shipped on trains to American bottling plants in terms of safety or quality,” he said.
While forgiving that board level executives don’t understand the recipe or process, Benekritis said the way it has always been done is distilled whisky comes in from Manitoba and “fine whiskies, caramel and other components, including Canadian water” needed to be added at the same place it’s bottled.
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He added “the only way to keep it as a Canadian whisky is to have that all done here in Amherstburg where it has been done for 75 years.”
Premier Doug Ford has already imposed a ban on American products on LCBO shelves in response to the Trump tariff war but that’s not the biggest factor. You see, the Toronto Sun has discovered, this Amherstburg operation is not just a bottling plant as most media reported but it is also the place where they “blend” the whisky before they put it into bottles.
Diageo Crown Royal plant in Amherstburg, Ontario will be shut down in February, 2026“We get the distilled whisky from the amazing people in Gimli, Man., and we add the final elements before the product is ready to be shipped.”
What they add to the much-heralded distilled mash from Manitoba helps determine the famous flavour of the whisky with the addition of several secret ingredients – one of which is fresh and pure Ontario water that is put through its own special process in a tank at the Windsor area plant.
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The company has so far not commented on this development or on where exactly they plan to move this operation in the United States. Rumours swirling say one location may be at a $415-million plant now under construction in Montgomery, Ala. – a state where workers can opt out of being unionized.
Wherever it goes, if you add American water to this process, or American caramel or other ingredients, you can’t call it Canadian whisky. It won’t just be a different product corporately but also potentially in taste.
“We don’t know the quality of the water where it’s going,” said Benekritis.
Or the climate or temperature.
It will mean Crown Royal will not have the consistency it has provided customers since Seagram’s introduced it in Canada as a gift to the King and Queen during a visit in 1949. It will keep that great tradition if Diageo changes its mind and keeps the operation where it has always been.
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“That’s what we are hoping for and what we are fighting for,” said Benekritis. “We have 186 families, so proud and professional, who are counting on it.”
He added a precedent for a reversal has already been set.
“A few years back they tried to move the operation to Baltimore to blend and bottle Crown Royal for the Canadian market but that didn’t work out,” said Benekritis. “They ended up bringing the jobs back. We want Valleyfield, Gimli and Amherstburg to thrive.”
Unifor National President Lana Payne
When Ford drew attention to the issue Tuesday by pouring out the bottle of Crown Royal at a press conference, the staff felt some “wind in our sails” because it sent a message “our government is behind us,” said Benekritis.
Certainly plant retirees are — many came to demonstrate their support at the plant Wednesday. And Unifor National President Lana Payne said she will do everything she can to save those jobs and that beautiful community.
If it doesn’t happen, Diageo will no longer be able to say Crown Royal is a Canadian whisky.
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Ontario Premier Doug Ford empties a bottle of Crown Royal whisky at a press conference in Kitchener on Sept. 2, 2025. Photo by Sammy Kogan /THE CANADIAN PRESS
Crown Royal is on the shelves of the LCBO now. But will they be after its parent company move an an Ontario plant to the US? Premier Doug Ford says stays tuned — Joe Warmington photo
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