2 oz Rye, Templeton Rye
1 oz Aromatized wine, Marolo Chinato
1 bsp Orange liqueur, Mandarine Napoleon
1 bsp Bénédictine
Instructions
Stir over ice, serve straight up, no garnish.
Notes
Marolo Chinato is not strictly speaking a vermouth, it's an aromatised wine that's not as sweet as vermouth, so it's not easy to just swap it out and keep the character of the drink.
History
Invented while trying to find a good cocktail to make the chinato really sing.
This is an excellent cocktail with a burgundy hue and lush flavor from the barolo chinato (I used Cocchi's Barolo Chinato which has become a favorite of mine.) It is hard to tell how much the small quantities of Mandarine Napoleon and Benedictine are doing, but they seem to provide some backing and depth to the flavor profile as I can taste elements of them around the periphery. The Mandarine Napoleon can be a bit strange in sparser flavor environments, but with the depth here it makes a subtle assist. I mistakenly used 4 dashes (rather than 4 drops) of my Abbott's bitters prepared from Darcy O'Neils' recipe, but this didn't hurt the beverage at all, and likely added to some of the components in the Benedictine while providing a gentle touch of anise to the cocktail, but not so much as to be noticed as licorice. The chinato is so flavorful in its own right that it is easier to supplement it than it is to overpower it.