Thyme, rosemary, basil, mint and eucalyptus in one recipe is a garden rather than a botanical selection. Five green plants would flatten most gins into a single herbal blur, and the reason they do not here is that each one occupies a different register. Distilleries et Domaines de Provence works in Forcalquier, macerates twelve plants and runs them through a copper plate column still at 42%.

The five separate cleanly once you look for them. Thyme is the driest and most savoury, rosemary resinous and close to pine, basil sweeter and faintly aniseed, mint cold and sharp, eucalyptus camphorous and medicinal above all of them. Wild juniper anchors the whole arrangement with its own resin, which is why the green half never floats free. Underneath, the spice and root work is precise: coriander seed warm and round, cardamom seed cooler and aromatic, maniguette seed peppery and biting, angelica root laying dry earth at the bottom. Florence iris root ties the set together with a powdery floral quality that softens the sharper herbs. Citrus lifts the top and keeps everything bright.

Herbs this prominent are best left alone by the mixer. Neutral tonic, ice filling the glass, and enough gin in the measure to carry the greenery through. A rosemary sprig or a mint leaf both repeat the recipe honestly, and either is better than a citrus wheel. It also makes an unusually aromatic Gimlet. Gold from the Beverage Testing Institute in 2021. Forcalquier has built a whole local economy on aromatic plants, and a gin from there carrying five of them is less an experiment than a summary. The column still is the other reason it stays clean: a plate column separates more sharply than a pot ever will. It closes herbal, spiced and dry.