Aside from a folksy anecdote about Booker making maple syrup, not much else in terms of date or price was really unveiled in a recent press release, other than the fact that Knob Creek will be introducing a smoked, maple flavored bourbon to be released sometime this autumn. No doubt a tasty sample and review will be forthcoming in the next few weeks. [via Press Release]

Elsewhere on the flavored whiskey tip, The Atlantic’s Rebecca Greenfield chimes in with a small essay on flavored whiskey, its growing popularity and longstanding history. [The Atlantic]

In lieu of a recent article published saying that wine tasting was basically junk science, The Guardian took additional time to present a history of science debunking wine tasting, critics, and everything involved with the practice. A great summary piece, but those who have been reading these article for years will find nothing new, really. [The Guardian]

Adding to the indignity of the whole “themed wine” fashion of recent, the folks who delivered the Wines That Rock line will be releasing a line of wines based on the BBC show Downton Abbey. According to the Fox News article, the wines are “from grapes grown on the same vines and from the same soil as the era depicted in Downton Abbey.” No word on whether or not they’ll be of an older vintage than Dame Maggie Smith. [Fox News]

Finally today, in more hyperbolic news, Talisker Dark Storm is being declared the “darkest, smokiest whisky Talisker has ever released” by Diageo marketing director Steve White, who claims it is:

a single malt that captures the untamed spirit of a full-blown storm at sea. It is intense and powerfully flavoured, a whisky that offers an element of ‘rugged luxury’ to today’s travellers – adventurers and whisky connoisseurs alike.

Rugged luxury? What the hell does that even mean? What about those of us simply not into being a rugged traveller? The folks who enjoy a dram of smoke-filled goodness but just aren’t into the spirited, highwire surrealist adventure that is airport travel? Is the reward for long layovers, missed luggage, delayed flights, bad food, and weird people a bottle one can’t find elsewhere? Truthfully, where is the joy in any of that? For those really into tasting the adventure, it’ll be available in European travel retail outlets this month. The rest of us will just have to hear about it from our world-hopping, jet-setting mates. [Spirits Business]