Melissa Katrincic, Co-Owner, CEO/President at Durham Distillery

As one of the most celebrated Gin creators in the world, Melissa Katrincic is not one to shy away from breaking barriers. She was the first woman gin distiller from the United States inducted into the prestigious Gin Guild and is a leader in introducing and educating Americans about this storied spirit. Melissa’s knowledge and passion are evident in everything she touches — from their Conniption Navy Strength Gin that has won top ranks in its category by the World Gin Awards four years running to designing a bold brand that honors the legacy that sparked her passion. We sat down with Melissa to learn where that passion comes from and where it is taking Conniption Gin next.

In 2013, I was facing a decision point. With over 20 years of experience as a Digital Marketer, I knew that with my background in marketing and my husband's as a pharmaceutical chemist, distilling gin would bring both of our worlds together.

I have always adored gin. It was gin martinis in the winter and gin and tonics in the summer for my family. My maternal grandfather made a production out of cocktail hour. It was this pause at the end of his day where he would settle in after doing his chores, and he would get out the ice and hand crack it, and he would make every cocktail with a lot of care. He loved it because he could then relax and enjoy it. His favorite cocktail to make was always a martini. When I would visit, he would slip the olives from his martini to me, starting from when I was about three. So I remember the taste of gin very early on.

Whenever we would travel, my husband Lee and I liked to try new gins. We enjoyed trying different gin cocktails in order to see what was trending in that city as well as exploring the gin shelf at the local stores. It was something we really enjoyed together.

On a trip to Savannah in 2013, there was a moment that weekend when we were talking about what was next. As we were driving home on I-95 going back home to Durham, I looked over at him, and I said, “Why don't we make gin?” Again, it was not at all a pre-planned decision. It really was a light bulb moment. Lee just laughed but also said, “Sure.” And then a few months after, we started our research and really vetted if we could do this. We needed to see if it was feasible, not only for our desires and our passions but also for our finances.

We knew we were not going to get a huge investor and go all-in at the start. We were very careful with the entire process. We built our business by the bootstraps and focused first and foremost on producing the highest quality gin and the most elevated packaging that we could so that we set ourselves apart right from the get-go. We knew if we were going to make gin, especially in the south where the preference is bourbon and vodka, we needed to ensure that it was both an incredible sipping gin and make it a flexible cocktail gin so you could still appreciate the flavor profiles that we crafted.

Conniption Gin was born from a fit of inspiration. For us, it's that inspiration that focused on a modern gin and embraced a new style with the U.S. consumer in mind.

It was very intentional. Both of our boys were born here, and we live in Durham. It's a city with a bit of grit, but it honors entrepreneurs who follow their passion. There's a kind of a “no-bullshit” factor to Durham. The city was built on the tobacco industry but simultaneously is where Black Wall Street was founded.

When we started, Durham had just been honored by Southern Living as “The South’s Tastiest Town.” Secondarily to its incredible food scene, many don't realize that the Research Triangle Park is in Durham. It is a city, a community, that really honors modern science. Durham is the “City of Medicine.”

Conniption is what my maternal grandmother would tell me not to have and as I mentioned, it was my maternal grandfather that would slip me the olives from his martinis. In this way, I’m honoring them both with the nod to “Conniption.” It's a great word too – and fun to say.

The design of Conniption is modern art deco. The bottle design of Conniption American Dry Gin is embedded with the saying, “Goodness gracious, for crying out loud.” It's really fun. We like to be a little tongue-in-cheek, and try not to take ourselves too seriously.

Gin has a deep history, and for a distiller, gin allows for innumerable flavor combinations. What makes us unique is that we distill using two very different methods: traditional vapor distillation and modern cold vacuum distillation. For our approach to flavor, we explored over 200 gins to train our palate. We knew we wanted to have two very different gins – the Contemporary American Dry and the Navy Strength. Many don’t realize that the only thing that separates a gin from vodka is the juniper berry. Otherwise, it's flavored vodka.

We started experimenting with different origins and levels of juniper for our recipes. In fact, Conniption Navy Strength has six times the amount of juniper than American Dry. It's a very big, bold gin. The Navy Strength has the savory elements adjacent to it; it has anise and coriander, a little bit of cardamom and caraway. That combination of flavors gives the gin a warming rye bread note, with rosemary, bay leaf, and citrus notes. Everything comes together and then is rounded out with this luxurious mouthfeel, finishing with notes of the distilled figs off of the cold vacuum, which is the rotary evaporator.

When we looked at all these gins, we asked ourselves, how can we be different? How can we bring a little bit of terroir, like cucumber and honeysuckle that are very much part of the South? Those flavors found their way into our Contemporary American Dry gin.

There is a method to our madness here that is about flavor exploration, as well as flavor personality that you might not see out of other distilleries. For instance, Plymouth Standard Proof and Navy Strength gin are actually the same botanicals, just different amounts of water. For us, that's missing the boat (pun intended): we really wanted to leverage that higher alcohol percentage with an increased amount of botanical flavor. We ended up creating the most unique Navy Strength that's available today. And it has been honored as the best Navy Strength Gin in the United States for four years in a row now from the World Gin Awards, which is the pinnacle award for the gin industry.

You don't need to start out with a martini with either Conniption Gin. For someone new to Conniption, I would want to know what their go-to cocktails are – for gin, vodka, or even whiskey. What kind of cocktails do they most enjoy? Typically, if I hear that they enjoy a lemon drop or a mule, I will recommend trying a cocktail that has really great effervescence to it with a hint of citrus. I highly recommend a French 75 with Conniption American Dry gin. We have a recipe for a French 75 that has a simple syrup with rosé wine in it instead of water. It's a fundamental base of rosé wine syrup, with a little bit more sugar added to it to make a rich syrup, lemon juice, and then the gin all topped with Cava. It’s so good that it’s a little bit too dangerous.

Conniption Navy Strength gin will hold up to anything you want to explore mixing it with. Its depth of flavors and higher proof makes for an amazing gin and tonic as the tonic doesn’t over-dilute the gin, which often happens with G and T's. The Navy strength is also perfect for “A Last Word” — the combination of the chartreuse, lemon, and our Conniption Navy Strength is just so good.

The last few years have been really impacted by the pandemic. Our hope was to have Conniption Gin be a household name by now. So things will take longer, simply because our bar and restaurant colleagues had to be shut down for so long. The brands that really succeeded and were elevated during the pandemic are your comfort brands, as in the big brands; meanwhile, many craft distilleries are struggling.

When the pandemic hit, we had 15 employees. I felt an innate responsibility to this team to make it on the other side of the pandemic. So I don't take running this company lightly in any way, shape, or form. I want everybody to feel a sense of ownership and to know that our intent is to build a brand that is authentic, transparent to the community, and something that everyone working here can be proud of.

I have very high aspirations for Conniption Gin in the coming years. Despite the challenges of the past few years, one of the key learnings for me is staying focused and ensuring that my passion is never overcome by the challenges. For me, this passion for crafting Conniption has to be number one. I think almost all entrepreneurs experience some doubt and second-guessing; there are a lot of things that you have to do to continue to run a successful company. But it’s infinitely harder to get back up when you're knocked down if you don't have that passion.

I take pride that we are a woman-led distillery, and we have a majority women team as well. But likewise, I’m proud that Lee is our Master Distiller. He taught me how to distill our gin because, for those first three years of the business, Lee still had to keep his full-time job as a chemist. Lee, can you come share what has kept you going despite the challenges and helped you stay focused on the future?

Lee: We are proud to be making a U.S. gin that everyone loves. It’s what kept me going. I always looked at this like we were hosting our family and friends – I wanted to make the best product I could for our community.

Melissa: Yes, completely agree. We consider everyone enjoying Conniption Gin as our guests and we're hosting them for cocktail hour — with care, consideration and above all, delicious cocktails.