In 1958, Sam Bronfman’s Seagram distilling empire officially arrived in New York City. Though its new skyscraper, with its bronze facings and large glass windows, changed American architecture, it blended into the New York skyline as though it was meant to be there. Bronfman’s son, Edgar, remarked proudly that the building established Seagram globally, once and for all, as a company that cared about quality. Mosaic-clad ceilings, marble floors, and priceless works of art decorated the interior, with the famous Le Tricorne, a 19ft x 20ft Pablo Picasso canvas stage curtain, hanging at the ground floor’s Four Seasons restaurant. The classic painting demonstrated Picasso’s accomplishment in integrating colours with precision, balance, and elegance. Seagram, too, brought these qualities to the architecture of blended whisky.
Sam Bronfman once declared, “Distilling is a science, blending is an art.” When you think of whisky components as colours, Seagram had become whisky’s Picasso. But the blending methodology it perfected began evolving long before Bronfman was born. Davin de Kergommeaux, in his new book , states that although Seagram
