Dolin Blanc Vermouth

Rating: 16/23 N: Sweet, fruity (juicy pear, mostly), a bit of baking spice (like a poached pear), and some herbal character that makes me think of a mix of dry and rosso vermouth. There's a solid amount of complexity here and it's pretty enjoyable to nose. A bit of vanilla P: Sweet, but funky with some spices, pears, vanilla, minerals, herbs, and old white wine flavor (kind of orange and herbal in a slightly medicinal way). It's much sweeter than a dry vermouth, but it's more interesting. I get a bit of paper with the vanilla. F: Lingering vanilla, minerality and pear, mixed with light herbal notes that fade fairly quickly. The minerality grows. Touches of spices here and there. A generally sweet and enjoyable finish. - Conclusion - OK, I'm starting to figure this one out. It goes well in sweet cocktails made with unaged spirits. Gin, light rum, blanco tequila, mezcal. Things that go well with a sweet punch to them, but that don't need the fullness and complexity of bitter herbs or a barrel. Frankly, I'm finding this one to be very mixed. It has a lot of mild successes without one killer cocktail that demands it. It's very good and I quite enjoy it, but this is enough of a gamble that I don't feel I can give it a very high rating. This is fairly arbitrary, but considering the improvements I've experienced, I think a 16 is about right. Hmm, I've tried this in a lot of homebrew cocktails now and I'm thinking that this is in the 15 to 18 range. Still wide, but it's a confident range at least. This isn't hard to drink neat, but it isn't actively enjoyable, so it really depends on its inclusion in cocktails to be successful. I'm thinking that 18 seems a bit high, but I'm also skeptical of the 15. Picking right now, I'd go with a 16. Yeah, I don't think I can go above a 16.

It's like if a gin and port wine had a baby. Smooth, sweet, nicely balance and awesome over ice with orange spritz. Will definitely drink again.