Champagne taste on a beer budget? How to toast the silly season

While Champagne is an iconic celebratory tipple, equally delicious bubbles are produced around the world and at home.

For those who feel adventurous, crack open something unknown this New Year's Eve and pair it with fireworks for a memorable night.

Crémant is the catch-all term for French wine made in méthode champenoise hailing from regions outside Champagne like Burgundy, Jura and Alsace.

These wines break away from the traditional style by using alternative grapes, like sauvignon blanc in Bordeaux, but have taste and texture similar to Champagne.

Melbourne sommelier Dan Barca told ACM: "They use the same production methods but offer quality rivaling the great champagne houses."

Look out for Crémant from Loire, made with chenin blanc, for pear, honey and yellow apple flavours.

If you want to celebrate Australian produce, try a crisp and elegant Tasmanian sparkling wine from regions including Coal River, Tamar Valley and Pipers River.

Tasmanian winemakers typically use traditional Champagne production methods to achieve flavours like biscuit, almond and lemon curd.

Australian wines have a shorter journey to your doorstep, so drinking these wines will continue to be cost-effective and environmentally friendly.

Producers such as Eric Bordelet in Normandy, France are turning winemaking techniques toward cider brewed from apples picked off gnarled 300-year-old trees to create complex and savoury fruit fermentations.

"They're approaching cidermaking with the same intensity and passion a winemaker brings to their vineyard," Mr Barca said.

These are not saccharine-sweet Australian ciders. They tend to be nutty and textural with bright acidity and lower in alcohol than Champagne.

Cava is made throughout Spain but production of the style is focussed in Penedès outside Barcelona and uses hard-to-pronounce grapes like Parellada, Macabeu, Xarel-lo.

Expect the gentle bead of Champagne with quince, apple and chamomile flavours. Pair this wine with a plate of juicy king prawns.

Non-vintage (NV) examples of these wines offer great value for money but spend a little extra on Reserva or Gran Reserva Cavas to really impress friends, Mr Barca said.

People are often surprised to find sparkling saké exists, Mr Barca said about the polished rice fermentation from Japanese prefectures including Chiba, Aomori and Akita.

"You find an incredible diversity of flavours in saké that you can't find in wine," the sommelier said.

Sparkling saké has complex umami characteristics that drink well with anything cooked on the barbeque and expect gentle nashi pear and banana flavours.

Winemakers in the south-east of England are imitating the traditional Champagne style, made with chardonnay, pinot noir and pinot meunier, to produce elegant sparkling wines with a reduced price tag.

The traditionalist winemakers in Surrey share a similar climate to the Champagne region prompting classic French producers Taittinger to establish a vineyard in Kent in 2017.

These wines taste of toasted brioche, red apple and Meyer lemon.