sparkling wine for welcome drink

I think you would get 4 glasses for toasts from a bottle. I am sure one of the big Off-Licenses like Oddbins do a scheme where you can return any unopened bottles.

We arent having champagne or sparkling wine - neither of us like it. We are having cocktails on arrival (Made to very specific instructions so as not to be too potent) and just wine for the toasts I think.

French "Cremant" or "Vin Mousseux" can both be nice, without the price tag attached to "Champagne". We got ours from the Valencay region but Burgundy also has some as well.

Probably necessary to go to France to get it though as the UK market is determined that it must say "Champagne" on the bottle. Ours was 5 Euros/bottle and I prefer it to most of the champagnes I've tried... Vineyards have the advantage that you can taste without having to buy an entire bottle but any supermarket in the relevant region would have some...

If you are using it for bucks fizz or kir royale, it doesn't necessarily have to be "nice" as the other flavours will cover it up. I personally would just get a cheap cava for those drinks.

If you want a nice one without the price tag try a cava or prosecco. I think prosecco would be too delicate for a Kir but does make a cracking bucks fizz. Just as an idea we had all the BMs over for a fizz tasting party. We bought all different price tags from M&S and everyone gave their feedback, it was great fun! M&S do a wine sale regularly where buy 6 bottles get 25% off, it's bargainous!

They work on 5 glasses of fizz per bottle but for the bucksfizz I would say you can stretch to 8 so you should manage with 8 - 12 bottles depending on what you do with it!

Wine is one of things, that if you keep your eye open for a bit you'll be able to find a really good deal on at some point at one of the supermarkets.

As a general rule, Spanish Cava and Italian Prosecco are made in exactly the same way as champagne, but cost a fraction of the price.

The Cordon Negro Freixnet (cava) is a decent fizz usually at about £7 and if you're planning on mixing it with orange juice for bucks fizz, there's no point mixing it/spoiling anything much more expensive than this! Plus, you could probably get about 10 glasses from a bottle if you're mixing it with juice!

I'm such a cheap date that I actually quite like Asti Spumante ?

I second what was previously mentioned about prosecco. This dribk has become really popular this year, and has been appearing in some very posh hotels as an alternative to champagne - the Sanderson is one good example of this! It also tastes delicious!