Mississippi has one of the most complicated relationships with alcohol of any state in the country, having been the last to repeal Prohibition, decades after the rest. That history hangs over a new generation of craft distillers now working, legally, to make spirits from local grain.

The distillery at the center of the revival leans into the complexity rather than around it. Its whiskeys are made with corn and other grains grown in the state, and its founders talk openly about the region's fraught, contradictory history with drink, the bootleggers and the temperance crusaders alike.

Craft distilling is capital-intensive and slow, requiring years of aging before a barrel becomes revenue. The founders have staked considerable resources on the bet that consumers will pay a premium for a spirit with a genuine local story.

Early signs are cautiously positive, with distribution expanding and a tasting room drawing steady visitors. Whether a small distillery can survive against national brands with vast marketing budgets is uncertain. But there is a satisfying symmetry to making legal whiskey, from Mississippi grain, in a state that spent so long trying to forbid it.