Casual Dram #20 : Dec 2025

 Last Casual Dram for 2025, which seemed reason enough to turn up.  Always an enjoyable session, and Mean Doses is an excellent venue for a relaxed tasting.

SMWS 2.138 Glenlivet 'Raisin Toffee Jam' 16 yo 55.0% 1st fill ex-oloroso sherry butt

• N- xmas cake, dry, manuka honey, hint of salt, burnt sugar, caramel
• P- warm, honey, sherry
• F-long, very very long.

9/10. Probably not a surprise that I liked this. 

Glenfarclas 'Family Cask' 2009 15yo #1117 61.5% Sherry Butt

• N- sweet, marshmallow, floral, hint of mint, perfume
• P- dry, sherry, spicy, banana, ?citrus, 
• F-hot, long, pepper, 

8.5/10 tastier than most Glenfarclas' drams. maybe they ain't too bad :)

Mystery Whisky

• N-hint smoke, bourbon, light
• P-light, no flavour, pepper grows on palate.
• F-short

6/10 not a lot going on, and I didn't pay attention to what it was either.

Benromach 'Dramfest' 2025 #626 2014 59.8% 1st fill sherry hogshead

• N-salt, bacon, medicinal, sherry
• P- salty, incr pepper, sherry
• F- grows in heat

7/10 not amazing, but not bad. 

Caol Ila 'Adelphi' 2014 10yo #326024 55.4% 1st fill oloroso sherry hogshead

• N- suppurating wound, coasstal, rose water, chocolate
• P-sherry, medicinal, complex, salty, coastal
• F-long complex and very tasty

9/10 hey its a sherry caol ila of course I liked it. Actually there's a bottle of it in my cabinet 

me

Last.FM #8 the Final Data

 I know the surprise reveal has already happened, that yes I did hit my 20,000 tracks target. The only remaining question is what number did I end up with, and did I hit the unexpectedly high 25,000 ?

Total for the year : 24,208 tracks

Average number of tracks per day: 66.51

No, I didn't make the 25,000, I did some quick analysis in the middle of Dec to work out how many tracks per day I needed, and it was high. By the last week of Dec it was ridiculously high:

How did this compare with other years of last.fm scrobbling? Quite well it turns out, the most tracks I've ever listened to:

I don't think I'll be as single minded this year, it was a fun and interesting exercise. I do feel that I was sometimes selecting tracks/albums with lots of short tracks (eg jazz film soundtracks, or funk compilations) but then again, I do listen to them a lot anyway. Avoiding bollocks like Transatlantic with their long windy tracks was a good plan, and probably helped sanity as well.

Next up in the posts, a more detailed exploration of my listening in last.fm for 2025, a whisky tasting and a review of the untappd year in competition with Alec.

me