It’s fair to say that wine took Mississippi native Phillip Ladner around the world, but distilling brought him home. Just out of college, he worked in a wine shop in New York, which he parlayed into a production gig in New Zealand, followed by jobs at well-respected wineries in California. But he eventually found his way to distilling, and a chance meeting with Richard Patrick and Austin Evans—the founders of Mississippi’s first legal distillery—led him back to his home state, where he’s the distiller for Cathead Distillery in Jackson.

In the latest episode of The Craft Spirits Podcast, Ladner talks about how winemaking prepared him for a career in distilling, Cathead's mission to support live music and creating spirits that evoke the South.