It takes a moment to place the scent. I close my eyes and am first transported to a Christmas tree farm, the bracing wintry air laced with pine—but that is not quite it. The aroma is somewhat fruity and slightly peppery. A moment more and my memory takes me to a barstool with a glass in hand, which is when I recognize it: gin.

But in that instant, I am not seated at a bar. I am at Podere Castellare, a farm in a small Italian town just outside Florence, and what I am smelling is not gin, but juniper. Here, the heady aroma refuses to be contained in a cocktail shaker; it wafts through the warm summer air around myself and a few others from the Life & Thyme team who have come to learn about the artisanal gin produced by Peter in Florence.