Joseph A. Magnus went into the wholesale liquor business in Cincinnati in 1892 at age 26, and his flagship Murray Hill Club Whiskey — named to capitalize on the gentleman's club craze of the era — became one of the finest bourbons of the pre-Prohibition age before the company shut its doors in 1918. Then it sat dormant for nearly a century, until 2007, when Magnus's great-grandson Jimmy Turner found an intact, 122-year-old bottle of the original. The family handed samples to whiskey experts to reverse-engineer the flavor, and in 2015 the company was relaunched under its original name. The person who cracked it was Nancy Fraley, one of the most respected master blenders in American spirits, working from roughly 250 milliliters of liquid from an 1892 bottle. Her analysis suggested the original had seen sherry casks, which gave her what she called "historical permission" to create one of American whiskey's first triple cask finishes: bourbon finished in Oloroso sherry, Pedro Ximénez, and Cognac casks. In 2016 she followed with the first-ever Cigar Blend Bourbon — an idea borrowed from Armagnac, now copied across the industry. The range spans the Triple Cask flagship, the coveted Cigar Blend batches, the Murray Hill Club blend of 18 and 11 year bourbon with light whiskey at 103 proof, and the Special Release series. Fraley retired in 2026 after twelve years, passing the reins to head blender Will Fabry.

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