science

Depends. Alcohol dissolves things that normally are only fat soluble so you can get an entirely different flavour from common foods (wine and beer tastings/pairings for example)

For fermented beverages the yeast and malt make a pretty unique flavour. Same with hops in a good pale ale or IPA. There's also the body and mouth feel that's hard to replicate without making alcohol. Residual sugars after fermentation are also kind of unique to alcohol since you always have normal sugars mixed in with other foods.