I loved wine but married a non-drinker. That kind of snuffed out my drinking, LOL. Can't finish a whole bottle by myself and besides, I'm doing 99% of the driving nowadays.
I love German whites, French reds - especially burgundies and the St. Emilion/Pomerol bordeaux wines. Enjoy CA Zins but not the current fad for big huge tannic alcohol-high Cabs, yuck. Not normally a big fan of Pinot Noir but ran across a beautiful smooth, well-balanced one from Donatiello, a Russian River winery. Also love dry yeasty French champagne like Lanson, and a few of the rose champagnes - the Ruinart NV rose is absolutely terrific with upscale prix fixe menus as it seems to go well with everything.
I've been lucky enough to have had 50+ yr old Trockenbeerenauslen and Sauternes, both of which were absolutely terrific (I very, very slowly drank up my one-and-only case of the 1970 Rieussec, opening my last bottle for my 50th BD, sigh). I enjoy port, but am pretty fixed on the Dow 30-yr. None of the other ports please me as much as that one does.
I wouldn't mind getting more into Madeira but I have no one to drink it with, LOL. So I have to settle for when I can try interesting ones at the few Portuguese restaurants around Northern CA. I had a terrific 15 year-old Verdelho Madeira from Henrique & Henrique's a few years ago, dining at La Salette/Sonoma.
The upscale sushi restaurants out here have really gotten into premium sakes. Our favorite place offers a different tasting flight every week. We've tried several of their choices and it's fascinating to see how they differ. So far the Dewasansan has been the winner: it's a dry sake but has a wonderful floral aroma that really pairs well with everything on the menu. Beginners like to try the Mirai, which is a sweet sake that tastes and smells exactly like cherry blossoms!
Premium sake, btw, is never served hot. Only cheap sakes are heated, to drive off the excess alcohol. Premium sakes are served ice-cold, like martinis. In fact, our fav restaurant uses these exact stemless martini glasses for its sake:
(courtesy of Amazon.com)
Another intriguing addition to the beverage menus has been the rise of hard ciders. We first encountered European hard ciders at a local wine bar, and became fond of both their ciders: Pacory 'cidre le costaud', France; and the outstanding Spanish Poma Aurea hard cider. The Pacory is a bit sweeter, so good with spicy food. The Aurea is drier but beautifully balanced, without the awful sour, tart edge Northern CA cideries are lately overfond of.
One excellent exception to that sour style: Sonoma Cider's The Anvil, finished in used bourbon barrels. It is
wonderful - bourbon being another fav of mine. Here's a review (altho I must admit, I don't like SC's other ciders that much):
https://ciderconnoisseur.com/sonoma-cider-the-anvil-bourbon-review/