Bardstown Discovery Six, I can already heard the cracking of soft, effete, middle manager knuckles and jowls clapping against Titleist polo shirts ready to complain about GEORGE DICKEL COMPONENTS. With Discovery 5 being a huge let down due to Tennessee Dickel blending, will 6 follow this trend?

Like the dude in high school who leaves his truck covered in mud for weeks, the Kentucky roots are evident here, 68% specifically. The mineral rich Dickel clocks in at only 16% of this blend but you can still taste it. It isn’t enough to derail the experience but chewable Tylenol and pencil graphite is up in the mix.

For $130 retail, I can already see guys who use their deodorant down to the hard plastic honeycomb talking about “I CAN JUST DRINK KNOB CREEK ITS BASICALLY THE SAME” then venmo request’ing a date for half the cost of the bird scooter they split. It’s worth the money in the current terrible bourbon climate.

You aren’t paying Bardstown to distill this liquid, you are paying them a premium to avoid grown men who predicate their self-esteem on bottles they will never open. You get the age statement, the quality, the transparency, and zero dealing with TRAVIS: manager at Enterprise Rent a Car who is IN WITH ALL THE DISTRIBUTORS, state raffle master, who enjoys going to Barcades and complaining when OWA sells for less than $90.

It is difficult to get bourbon in the solid teens at this price and this isn’t even the questionable age-over-all-else Diageo barrels that are lost/saturated to hell. It’s a solid mix of pecan sandies, dark fruit, Sugar Babies, maple oatmeal, and a touch oakier than expected. Finish is long but drying akin to Earl Grey tea.

Somewhere there’s someone in a backwards new era hat and an Express for Men button down going CINNAMON BRO while secretly knowing they could have bought a Blanton’s for this price.

Bardstown is NDP but up front about it enough that it isn’t some terrible Peyton Manning cashgrab. D6 is on par with 4 but not as good as 2, but all are worth the cost of entry. For now. I’m sure these will be ruined soon enough too and we will be drinking Kessler by 2024