De Salins Vermouth Dry

Rating: 14/23 Vermouth is always so difficult to judge, especially, on the white end of the spectrum, which has a lot more potential to be exposed and modified. This is certainly in that range. It's certainly not overly harsh, flat, or mild. The character here shows through, but it's restrained and balanced with the rest of the flavor here. What does it actually taste like though? It's spicy and definitely on the sweet side for dry vermouth. I'm a sucker for those baking spices, which remind me of Valentine's Liberator - one of my favorite gins. Unfortunately, this doesn't pair too well with Valentine's Liberator due to being too similar. The more I try this in martinis, the more I find it tastes like fruits a bit past their prime and sulphur. I was expecting to give this a shockingly high rating for a Total Wine brand later, but I'm not find ing that this is dragging everything down. OK, so Drumshanbo (13/23) is improved by this in a martini. I guess I'll give this a 14. Not bad for a store brand, but I feel like a martini benefits a lot of high quality ingredients (that go together) and I think that this could be a great choice with a bottom shelf gin, but I'd rather just get some nice mid-shelf ingredients. Eh, coming back to this with Drumshanbo, I'm getting more of that sulphur here than I expected. I'm thinking a 12 now. A devastating drop. I might even go lower at this point. Coming back to this yet again and trying it with Doc Porter's (15/23), I'm liking the combo. Maybe a touch of sulphur still, but it's slight. I'm liking this better than before and I'm liking the martini better than the neat Doc Porter's. Still, on its own, this is a little off. Mixing with caution seems advisable. I was sort of thinking that this was better than Doc Porter's, but it's inconsistent enough as a mixer that I think I need to go a bit lower. I'm thinking of maybe going with a 14 then seeing as the high point of this is solid. This works pretty well with New Riff Kentucky Wild Gin (17/23). OK, I'm now thinking that this id a good mixer. That 14 seems on the low side. I'm not finding this to be an improvement on the New Riff, but it does make the Doc Porter better. Maybe the Drumshanbo is just weird (highly probable). I'll bump this up from a 14 to a 15, but I think that's as jigh as I'm prepared to go right now.