Playground →
Four bourbon brands occupy four of the top five positions in Jefferson's Bourbon's nearest neighbor set — but the fifth slot belongs to a sports journalist, and that cross-kind signal runs through the entire top 10.
The shape is broad: scores descend gradually from Four Roses Bourbon at 0.89 down to Dan Wetzel at 0.79, with no single neighbor pulling far ahead of the pack. Woodford Reserve (0.85) and Buffalo Trace (0.84) sit close behind Four Roses, confirming a tight cluster of fellow Alcohol brands at the top. Maker's Mark (0.82) rounds out the bourbon contingent in the top five. That's four Alcohol subcategory neighbors in five slots — a strong same-kind core.
What makes the shape structurally interesting is what fills the remaining six positions. Pat Forde (0.85) — a Journalist — lands at position three, ahead of Buffalo Trace, and is followed by Erin Andrews (0.81, TV Personality), Scott Van Pelt (0.80, Journalist), Jeff Goodman (0.79, Journalist), Sam Ponder (0.79, TV Personality), and Dan Wetzel (0.79, Journalist). Four of those six are sports journalists; two are TV personalities. No athletes appear in the top 10, and no other brand subcategory breaks through.
The audience this bourbon draws looks like one that follows college sports media closely — journalists and on-air personalities dominate the non-alcohol half of the neighbor set, suggesting the overlap is less about spirits broadly and more about a specific sports-media-adjacent consumer.
