Crown Royal Whisky
- Photography ServedProject Featured On:Photography Served — 9/9/12
- Crown Royal WhiskyCase Study | Photography & Design at the Crown Royal Whisky Distillery, Gimli, Canada.
- Q: How do you capture the personality and the authentic flavour of the distilling process used make Crown Royal, the iconic Canadian Whisky?
A: Travel to the shores of Lake Winnipeg in the heart of Canada and photograph the entire brewing process.
Located on the shores of Lake Winnipeg in Manitoba, Canada, the Gimli distillery is the home of Crown Royal whisky (spelt with without the 'e' as it's Canadian). James Bareham and Lane Mott (then working for Shaw Wunderman) came together as photographer and art director respectively, to document the various stages of the whisky distilling process, and to capture portraits of the employee's who make it.
The one day shoot was a virtual walk through of the entire process, from the delivery and selection of the grain, to the malting, milling, mashing and fermentation of the whisky. James shot portraits of the tasters, the barrel men, the master blender and the master distiller among others - as well as landscapes and details of both the distillery and the surrounding countryside.
Lane Mott took the resulting images and created a direct mail piece that described each of stages that a single drop of Crown Royal Whisky passes through, and used the images as assets for a variety of other Crown Royal pieces, both in print and online.
The images formed a foundation of a creative visual style for Crown Royal that was carried forward to a second shoot by James Bareham, in which he documented the creation of one of three glass decanters for a very limited edition of Crown Royal Extra Rare. This bottle was created for HM Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and presented to her at the 2007 Kentucky Derby. 
Lake Winnipeg
Whisky samples
Tasting
Samples X & Y
Checking the grain for freshness- Checking the grain for texture
- Preparing a tasting sample
- Gimli Barrelman
- Ageing Room
- Gimli Distillery Fire Dept.
- Aging barrels
- Filling the barrels
- Forklift driver
- Stacked for aging
- Master Blender
- Assessing the final blend
- The final product
Multiple Owners
Multiple Owners
Multiple Owners
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