State Line Distillery was founded by a man named John Mleziva. Muh-LEZ-i-vah. We can blame his Czech heritage for that preposterous last name. John attended UW-Eau Claire and Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland. He’s worked as an emergency medical technician, a salmon fishing guide, and a speaker salesman. He’s left-handed. He’s pretty hairy. For the past ten years, he’s sung baritone with the Madison Choral Project. He once went skydiving in the Swiss Alps. In high school, he had frosted tips. He’s an excellent swimmer. His daughters’ names are Chloe and Elsie. His childhood home was haunted, sort of. He once survived a dreadful fall down a flight of wooden stairs because he was wearing a humongous sombrero. At age 17, he organized a pay-to-play squirt gun game called Assassination for several hundred of his classmates that consumed their daily lives for almost a month. Each year, he rides his bike from Duluth to the Twin Cities to raise money for MS research. It rained on his wedding day. He and his dad watch Packer games in tense, focused silence. He’s a speedy walker, a clumsy bowler, a snore-y sleeper, and a gifted booze maker. Oh, and his favorite Enya album is “Watermark.” Easily.