Rivata Dry Vermouth

Rating: 17/23 This is vermouth, so I won't follow my usual NPF review format. I'm just going to wing it and try to figure out how good this is as a mixer. I've never heard of Rivata before, but it was cheap and I've tried the usual suspects and not been too impressed by any of them (I did want to try Carpano, but it was out of stock), so I figured what the heck. As a total tangent, this hilariously has three drink recipes on the back, none of which is a martini. I realize that this isn't extra dry, but it's still a bit sweeter than I'd expected. There's not a lot going on here, but the flavor is fine. There's a bit of tartness to this to balance it out and it does hit that normal vermouth profile, but really not much is happening here. Still, it's totally serviceable and it can hit that dry mark that all of those extra dry ones can't. This works pretty well in a 6:1 martini with New Riff Kentucky Wild Gin (17/23). I don't think it really improves upon the gin, but it doesn't stand out too much. This doesn't work too well in the same cocktail with The Botanist (16/23) though. I'd take The Botanist neat over this for sure. Adding the right amount of this maybe improves Uncle Val's Botanical (10/23), but Uncle Val's is pretty bad to begin with, so that's not much of an achievement. I'm not loving or hating this overall. Mostly, I'm wondering what I'm supposed to be doing with it. Getting into some more martinis with this, Spirit Of French Lick Aquavit (14/23) tastes a bit better with this. Valentine Liberator (19/23) pairs nicely with this, though whether it's better this way or neat, I'm not so sure. Eh, I think I prefer Valentine alone. still, this works quite well. I'm no vermouth expert, but I'm pleasantly surprised by this. It does have a pretty bold, flat flavor, but I have found a few martinis that work quite well with it. Considering that, I think that this is actually a quite good dry vermouth. I'd like to go back and compare it mixed with some of these spirits where it worked so well against some other dry vermouths with the same spirits. For now though, this is a really surprising stand-out. I'm not finding that this reaches the level of the Valentine in a mixed drink, but I am finding it to be nice when mixed with New Riff. I'm thinking a 16 to 18 for this, which is frankly far higher than I ever expected. I'm leaning toward a 17, but I can believe a 16 or an 18. Of the two, I find an 18 to be slightly more plausible. Oh, wait. After trying Monkey 47 after this, I'm thinking that this is likely not an 18. It's getting a 17. Yeah, right now I'm going for a 17. Still, this is very tough to score and it might be riding on the coattails of some very nice spirits. Actually, I can even imagine this being lower now, in the 15 to 16 range, perhaps. That New Riff is tasting awfully tasty. Still, this is working quite well in martinis, regardless of its final score.