The Bordeaux drinker is most often a classicist, valuing order and harmony above the strictly sensuous: richness and reserve, youth and maturity, fruit and structure all sit in exactly their appointed spots. The great houses, particularly those who have invested heavily in their wine reserves, are your best bet. Charles Heidsieck Brut Reserve is a sommelier favourite for good reason. Its flint and bergamot nose, fine, cedary autolysis, well-judged oak and heart notes of chypre and sandalwood ooze breeding. The Brut Millésime handily equals and sometimes surpasses it.

The typical Aussie shiraz (or Napa cab) lover is a hedonist, leaving the European obsession with restraint and tradition to other drinkers; concentration, fruit and power are the altars at which you worship. To find your champagne soulmate, turn to a house like Bollinger, long known for prizing lush textures and flavours over subtlety. R.D. 2007 takes a decidedly gourmand bent with a soft, coconut macaroon oakiness and lusciously ripe peach fruit, with just the right slice of bitterness to veer away from shameless excess. 

Most lovers of red Burgundy are drawn to its softer qualities: the heady perfume, dewy earthiness and sensuous, slippery texture that belie its lightness. The obvious call is a blanc de noirs (made, like Burg, from pinot noir) for its more sumptuous fruit, savoury depth and satisfying mouthfeel, but make sure to pick one with ample acidity. Roses de Jeanne Côte de Val Vilaine 2019 from rockstar grower Cédric Bouchard delivers a progression of yellow plum, camomile, honey and pistachios into deepest, saltiest liquorice on a rounded but airy frame that will entrance and delight the pinotphile.

Those besotted with Barolo are both sensualists and masochists; you love it for the floral perfume inextricable from its savoury depths, the translucency that overlays its punishing rigidity. Françoise Bedel—an iconic figure within the champagne world, particularly among fellow biodynamics adherents—was an early advocate for pinot meunier, Champagne’s once reviled “third grape” that is the base for many of its most elusive and alluring cuvées. Dis “Vin Secret” melds exotic woods like teak and rosewood with washed rind cheese; and juicy grapefruit with dried citrus peel. It delivers chewy, supple phenolics, a refreshing wall of acidity and seemingly limitless depth.

The martini is the drink of choice for the lover of purity—for you, clean flavours, elegant lines and exquisite simplicity are where true beauty lies. The ascendant house of Thienot makes just the Blanc de Blancs NV for you: it has the understated bouquet of an Hermès eau de cologne, all black lime, conifer and white tea that waft delicately across the palate. On the finish, there’s a pleasant saline quality to match the acidity, perfect for you dirty martini types.

The negroni-minded are attracted to intensity, whether the sensations be inviting (like sweetness) or its opposite (bitterness). The rise of saignée rosé champagne—a style made by bleeding off the juice from a cuvée of red and white grapes rather than by blending a finished white wine with a touch of red wine—is very much thanks to drinkers who share your tastes. Larmandier Bernier Rosé de Saignée Extra Brut NV, made mainly from pinot noir with some co-planted pinot gris but hailing from classic chardonnay country, is a rosé with gusto: electric red with electrifying red fruit, its enticing florals lift to reveal a tonic bitter edge.

Sancerre, though not as effusive as its antipodean cousin Marlborough sauvignon blanc, is fuelled by its pungent, assertive aromatics; its admirers crave it for its energy and drive. Pierre Paillard Les Mottelettes Bouzy Grand Cru 2016 is a chardonnay from classic pinot noir country. Consequently, it has a fruit and herb candour unlike most of its brethren but without sacrificing freshness: pineapple, lemongrass and verbena polka dance out of the glass, leaving behind lively acidity and a linen-like, palate-grazing texture.

The sake drinker looks beyond the fruit salad for flavour inspiration, embracing all shades of umami, smoke and “minerality” (i.e. savoury, non-edible aromas that are more chemical than vegetal or animal). For you, tactile mouthfeel is easily as important as flavour. Grower R Pouillon deliberately waits for the “mineral” elements in his grapes to emerge before harvesting. The Reserve Brut Premier Cru NV rumbles with whiffs of volcanic hydrocarbons and brimstone. On the palate, musk and amber sit over plump fruit, which give way to a back palate like wet clay and roasted artichokes. A sake lover will feel right at home.

While craft beer, like sake, really comes in too many styles to generalise about, it is typically more savoury and less fruity than most wines, with the sour, nutty and earthy all welcome at the table. For the fans, the “natural wine” movement—almost exclusively found among growers in a champagne context—brings to wine all the flavours you have long felt were missing. Diebolt-Vallois Cuvée Le Fleur de Passion 2012, with its oxidative, bruised apple nose, sarsaparilla, chenpi and ginseng is like walking into a TCM shop, in the best possible way. Alternatively, Etienne Calsac Extra Brut L’Echappée Belle gives more of the lemon, green apple and dewy white florals of classic champagne but with kombucha and fresh ginger notes building on the palate until they dominate the finish, for a “just natural enough” vibe.

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