File this under: things you never thought you’d see in the whisky aisle. Ontario’s premier, Doug Ford, has ordered Crown Royal off LCBO shelves after Diageo announced it will shift US-market bottling and a warehouse to Montgomery, Alabama. Cue the headlines, cue the outrage, and cue the confusion—because the liquid itself isn’t going anywhere.
Key Takeaways
- Price points mentioned range from $80 to $2, offering options for various budgets.
- Key themes: Crown Royal, Diageo, Ontario—stay informed on these evolving trends.
- The takeaway? Keep exploring, keep tasting, and don’t be afraid to try something new.
Why This Matters
The wine world moves fast, and this story captures a pivotal moment. Whether you’re a casual sipper or a dedicated collector, understanding these shifts helps you make smarter choices about what ends up in your glass.
Here’s the part that matters for your glass. Crown Royal is still being made in Canada. Diageo says the mash, distillation, and aging remain in Manitoba, with bottling for Canada and the rest of the world (outside the US) continuing in Quebec. The corporate chessboard moved a bottling line south; the whisky stayed north. As the company told Wine-Searcher: “Crown Royal will be mashed, distilled, and aged in Canada.” — Diageo spokesperson, via Wine-Searcher.
So why the political heat? Ford’s move lands amid a broader, uniquely Canadian tangle of booze policy and interprovincial muscle-flexing. Provinces run liquor sales, and they don’t always play nicely together. Ontario’s LCBO doesn’t exactly roll out the red carpet for bottles from British Columbia, while somehow finding room for dozens of wines from Macedonia and Crete. The shelves, like a point break, get crowded in weird ways.
Zooming out, the last year has been an absolute roller coaster for the spirits business. Canadian provinces widely boycotted US whiskey after tariffs, throttling imports and leaving warehouses stuffed. Manitoba—the province that actually produces Crown Royal—recently opened the floodgates to sell off stockpiled US whiskies, with lines forming in the cold and sales doubling initial expectations in a day. Ontario, meanwhile, is reportedly sitting on about $80 million of US booze, much of it aging in place, while roughly $2 million of hard seltzers race the expiration clock.
Meanwhile, the industry itself has been tapping the brakes. Production cuts and pauses have rolled through Tennessee and Kentucky, with some of the biggest names tightening belts. Diageo pausing George Dickel production, Jim Beam dialing back in Kentucky, Brown-Forman layoffs—the vibe isn’t exactly boom times. Moving a US bottling line closer to the US market is standard logistics, not sacrilege.
The LCBO has been pushing “shop local,” and fair enough. As the provincial retailer put it: “Ontarians Continue to Show Strong Support for Local.” — LCBO press release, via Wine-Searcher. But spotlighting local doesn’t have to mean banishing one of Canada’s signature spirits because a multinational made a US operations call. If anything, removing Crown Royal risks turning everyday drinkers into proxy soldiers in a trade scuffle they didn’t ask for.
For drinkers in Ontario, expect short-term shelf weirdness—gaps, swaps, and maybe some overcorrection toward cream liqueurs with dessert vibes (hello, Wolfhead Vanilla Almond Biscotti). If you’re a Crown fan, you’ll likely see continued supply via other channels or neighboring provinces, and the US will keep humming with Alabama-bottled stock for its own market. For everyone else, this is a reminder that alcohol policy in Canada is as political as it is logistical.
What’s the smart move as the tide shifts? A few ideas:
- Explore the broader Canadian rye category—plenty of bottles live in Crown’s flavor neighborhood.
- Keep an eye on LCBO releases; in times of churn, interesting inventory can surface unexpectedly.
- Don’t panic-buy. The whisky’s still Canadian at heart; the bottling shuffle doesn’t change the DNA.
There’s a bigger principle at play too: politicizing a staple Canadian product over an operations move sets a clunky precedent. It punishes local workers in the short run without materially changing where the whisky is born and matured. Consumers end up holding the bag, or in this case, an empty purple bag waiting for a refill.
The irony is rich: in trying to defend Ontario, the province is boycotting one of Canada’s most successful exports—a brand that’s the fourth best-selling spirit in the US. If we’re serious about supporting Canadian producers, the focus should be on job transitions, innovation, and market access, not performative shelf-clearing that leaves drinkers guessing.
Bottom line: Crown Royal still tastes like Crown Royal because it’s still made the Crown Royal way, in Canada. The rest is politics—and those are best served on the side, not in the glass.
Source: https://www.wine-searcher.com/m/2026/01/canadian-whisky-gets-political?rss=Y
