Cathead Distillery, Mississippi’s first and oldest legal distillery, has unveiled the Old Soul Estate Collection, a new range of seven whiskeys made entirely from Mississippi-grown grain. The collection comprises three core whiskeys and four single barrel selections, all pot-distilled, aged, and bottled on site.
The release marks a milestone for co-founders Richard Patrick and Austin Evans, who opened Cathead in 2010 when Mississippi had no legal distillery or bourbon tradition.
The pair set out to establish a sense of terroir in the category, using local grain and the state’s climate. They filled casks year after year, relying on Mississippi’s heat and humidity to mature the spirit.
Earlier Estate releases included a 100% Mississippi wheat whiskey and a sorghum-grain bourbon in 2025.
The newly added Old Soul Small Batch now joins the collection, in what the distillery describes as a milestone 16 years in the making.
“Making whiskey from Mississippi, start to finish, is something we’ve wanted since the day we opened the doors,” said Richard Patrick, co-founder of Cathead Distillery. “We didn’t have a shortcut, so we got here the long way, one barrel at a time.”
Patrick added: “Seeing Small Batch carry the Estate name is a proud moment for us, and it’s honestly a starting point more than a finish line. There’s a lot still resting in our barrels that we’re excited to share.”
Every whiskey in the collection is pot distilled, a slower, small-batch method that differs from the column stills used for most American bourbon. The grains include corn, wheat, rye, and sorghum, a grain rarely found in a bourbon mash bill due to its heat tolerance.
“Pot distilling Mississippi grain and aging it through Mississippi summers gives you a whiskey you can’t make anywhere else,” said Austin Evans, co-founder of Cathead Distillery. “The heat works the barrels hard, so the whiskey matures beyond its years.”
The core range features the Small Batch Straight Bourbon (90 proof, aged six years), the Mississippi Wheat Straight Wheat Whiskey (100 proof, aged seven years) and the cask-strength Delta Reserve Straight Bourbon (112.1 proof, aged eight years).
The 2026 collection begins arriving on shelves this fall, with select expressions available now for nationwide shipping via Seelbach’s and Cellar.com.
