Aperitivi.
I'm looking to build a core list of aperitivi. Not just cocktails that could happily be drunk before a meal, but which have an unmistakeable aperitif nature, so leaning to the dry, volatile (nothing that could be tagged 'aperitif or digestif').
So far, as you might expect, sherry and vermouths are featuring:
London Calling (fino),
Californie Place (Noilly Prat),
Marianito (Cocchi storico),
Hell Diver (Dubonnet),
Holy Smoke (manzanilla)

What am I missing?

So just now I went through four different ratio tests... My favorite is less sweet, omitting the triple sec, and is positioned at a 5:5:2, which has just enough of each flavor going on, ultimately tasting like a peach-flavored 'unsweetened' American-style fast food iced tea. But that's just my take.

As you say, your 5:5:2 variant is much more like a commercial peach tea than the original recipe above.
Mine was pretty good, but peach-forward, needed more tannins and was a touch sweet, all of which I put down to me not getting the black tea right. Not drinking tea, I probably underestimated the quantities/ brewing time/ tea leaf strength.
Post-Trump, when bourbon's back on the shopping list, I will revisit this. Ta.
[Bourbon Peach Tea]

The only thing I like better than a head-to-head of cocktails, or of cocktail ingredients, is a drink/ food pairing. This one works very well.
The Americano bianco smooths the edges off the Suze, but there's still enough bite to counter the cream in the moules marinières sauce. It has the same intensity of flavour as the moules, so sipping it along with the meal works.
[Bouchot]

My first génépi. The barman gave me a generous taster over ice: very nice, yes, this is something I'd like to drink more of.
Alpine Negroni: I was a bit concerned about the gentian+ gentian of the suze+ americano bianco, but the combo smoothed out leaving some space for the génépi to come through. As noted by John Carr below, the Giffard Menthe Pastille is strong stuff and 5ml just right (and the max) for a point of menthol freshness. Two swaths of lemon zest in the shaker subbed for the lemon bitters. The rosemary sprig did good work.

Would have liked more génépi, so I remade it with 22.5ml (3/4 floz) which I think improved it.
An excellent drink.
[Alpine Negroni]

With orange bitters instead of absinthe, and Giffard's white creme de cacao: Very nice, warm, rich. The ratio of cacao to Dubonnet was spot on. I'd take this over a [Dubonnet Cocktail No.1] any day (sorry your majesty!)

I was a bit thrown by the phrase "90th anniversary of Sant Ambroeus" until I realised this was the restaurant group, and not the eponymous Saint Ambrose (~339-397), the patron saint of Milan.

Hear hear!

Is it possible to sort one’s wish list by date added?

I keep a separate database (I'm a programmer, so shoot me!). The bits that worked very well for me was to store the date that the recipe was added, a rating (core, outside core but to repeat, on file, unrated, pretend it doesn't exist). My notes on the drink can include the word "try". //
From this I can ask for drinks I rated 'C' or 'B2' in the last 6 (or whatever) months (which stops me losing them). I can also list drinks tagged 'try' //
I also keep a separate log of which cocktails we drank on each day, which allows me to list drinks we really enjoyed, that we haven't drunk recently. //
Other cunning plans also exist.

Yep, best to look online. It is based on (apparently) the recipe for the very first vermouth ever, with Giuseppe Carpano apparently being the inventor of vermouth as a commercial category of aromatized wines. It kind of tastes like a mix of a typical (if a bit rich) sweet red vermouth, with the vanilla and dried fruit aspects reported of Carpano Antica, but not as intense. I also had Cocchi Torino and they end up being very similar in terms of taste.

I enjoyed a lot of head-to-head testing on vermouths and Negronis. I find the Cocchi Storico much more complex and use it in most cocktails that expose the vermouth. OTOH, the Carpano is my choice for a Negroni (my notes):
Excellent bitter(sweet) with the Cocchi Storico, layered, orange glints and notes. Even better with the Carpano Antica Formula, which gives a more harmonious drink.

I made this 5-6-7 times roundabouts... I don't know why I feel beholden to Big Celery to tell the truth about this cocktail, but this worked best for me: 60 ml white rum (brand dependent oh yeah), 15 ml celery juice, 15 ml bianco (cobbled), 5 ml sherry, 5 ml elderflower, 1 dash celery bitters (ties the drink together)... I don't know about you, but I can't stand cocktails where the ingredients want to work together, but their conflict is fraught with disagreements.

This variant I liked very much. Savoury, very well balanced, everything played its part. Celery and bianco married well. The fino and elderflower were just 5ml each, but punched above their weight to add interest. Bravo.

Regarding Cocktails author weighing in here. Noticed that the recipe specs are off for this drink. Three bar spoons of jam would make this drink entirely too sweet. Sasha's Cosmonaut (which I pulled from the original Milk & Honey spreadsheet of recipes and included in Regarding Cocktails), calls for "a heaping bar spoon of raspberry preserves. The book also calls out that the jam of choice for this drink was always Bonne Maman.

A jar of Bonne Maman Raspberry conserve holds 370g of jam, or 260g/260ml water. So, 20ml of jam weighs (20 x (260/370)) = 14g. Weigh directly into your shaker on your kitchen scales. No mess, no faff, consistent and repeatable.

When my current bottle of Rittenhouse American Rye whisky runs out, I'll be seeking out a bottle of Lot 40 cask strength Canadian Rye whisky to replace it. Anyone else thinking along similar lines?

I'm definitely interested in alternatives to US rye (and bourbon). When Trump put his first tariffs on Europe, we radically reduced our consumption of rye-based cocktails, but the Rittenhouse and Bulleit (and the WT101 )are now either empty or running on fumes.
//
Did you try the Lot 40 Cask strength, and did you see that they also make a 43% ?

Question for the DD community: when preparing citrus juice for a cocktail, do you fine strain it before adding it to the shaker/ stirring glass to remove pulp? I use a reamer rather than a press, and I usually do fine strain, but this year's blood oranges are filling the conical strainer with a very fine pulp resembling a puree even after one orange.
To include, or not to include. That is my question.

Merlet's Lune d'Abricot in perfect bitterweet balance with the Averna. Apricot darkened by the amaro, lifted by the citrus. (Choose your apricot brandy wisely. De Kuyper's apricot brandy, for example, would make a very different, much sweeter cocktail)

[Jim Jam]

Difford's Guide recipes using cranberry juice are made up and balanced for Eager Cranberry juice, which has 14.1g sugar/100ml.
Ocean Spray cranberry juice has just 5g sugar/100ml, so needs an extra 9g sugar/100ml to bring it to the level of sweetness that the recipe expects.
Fortunately, 10ml of Monin rich sugar syrup contains 9g (actually 8.55g) of sugar, so for every 100ml of Ocean Spray cranberry juice we use in a recipe, add 10ml (1o%) of rich sugar syrup to get the target sweetness.

With Belle de Brillet, Magloire Calvados VSOP, I get pear with apple, made savoury from the salty manzanilla, a touch of vanilla, nothing from the orgeat. A little sweet for an aperitif. There's something outstanding nearby. To repeat.

I was looking for something combined Suze and cognac, as they seemed a natural pairing to me. Added an extra 5ml Suze and could potentially go up to 20ml (total) I think. Aperitif in style but with a luxurious richness, especially given the orange and cherry garnish suggestive of late night sipping.

I have three cognac+suze in my list. This one (L'Heritage), the Charente White Negroni (which I see you have already tried and liked). The third is the Vieille Place... (halve the sugar)

There is no way to find them by base alcohol, or maybe I am missing something

The ability to filter on base alcohol and Hall of Fame has since been added the the Cocktail Finder, as part of a major increase in functionality in 2025.

A lovely, though dominating, vermouth, but why does it have to come
in a 1000ml bottle? Picked up a couple of 375ml half bottles in the States, but that is not somewhere I am going back to any time soon.

Keep the empties. Decant your litre into them (fill well). Store in a cool dark place.
(I'd also decant the last 250ml into a smaller container, to minimise the surface area exposed to the oxidising air)