Miltiradiene (1) is the precursor of phenolic diterpenoids such as ferruginol (2), requiring aromatization and hydroxylation. While this has been attributed to a single cytochrome P450 (CYP76AH1), characterization of the rosemary ortholog CYP76AH4 led to the discovery that these CYPs simply hydroxylate the facilely oxidized aromatic intermediate abietatriene (3).