Walnut husk is the green casing around the shell, and Italy has been steeping it in alcohol for centuries to make nocino. Using it in a gin brings the same thing it brings there: a bitter, tannic, slightly astringent depth that no other botanical supplies. Collesi puts it among seven, distils on barley grown on its own estates in the Marche, and rests the result in barrel for about a year at 42.8%.

Seven botanicals and a year of wood is an unusual combination, because most producers who age a gin start from a longer list. Here the barrel has room. Apennine juniper opens dry and resinous. Italian lemon and orange zest follow with a striking freshness that survives the maturation intact, and they are what keep a golden gin from tasting heavy. Marche sour cherries fill the middle with a sweet, juicy red fruit that is the softest thing in the recipe. Wild rose adds a delicate floral layer above them, hops a green bitterness beside the walnut husk, and the two bitter elements between them hold the fruit in place. Then the barrel supplies vanilla and a velvety woodiness that rounds every edge without covering anything.

Wood and fruit in one glass want a mixer that stays quiet. Ordinary tonic and a glass filled properly do the job, though the barrel speaks more honestly on a single large cube. Orange peel follows both the zest and the vanilla; a sour cherry is the option that repeats the fruit. Anything sweetened turns the cherry into syrup. Barley grown, water sourced and gin aged in one place is a shorter chain than most bottles can claim. The Marche is not a region that exports much gin, and this one reads like an estate product rather than a category entry. It closes fruity, woody and bittersweet.