I don’t as a rule find wine trade reports a riveting read but one line that caught the eye recently was ‘five million people in the UK drink sparkling wine at least once a week’. While I do more than my bit for the statistics, I wasn’t surprised to see that not only are we the biggest guzzlers of Champagne outside France, but that we’re also drinking a lot more affordable fizz from elsewhere.

It stands to reason. It’s not just that we all want the good life but don’t necessarily have the budget to keep ourselves in the style to which we’d like to be accustomed. As much to the point, sparkling wines around the globe have improved beyond measure. In California, New Zealand an Australia, it’s often been the result of champagne know-how and investment while in the case of cava and prosecco, it’s the domestic industries doing the pulling up of the bootstraps.

Prosecco is popular because of its reasonable price and the instant if not enduring appeal of a certain fresh pear-like sweetness. The saccharine appeal can pall with more than one glass but it doesn’t always. Tesco’s Finest Bisol Prosecco di Valdobbiadene, £7.99, down from £9.99 until 30 April, Tesco, manages the apple and pear flavours with an appealing freshness and a crisp sherbety tang to the finish that creates a mouthwatering impression of dryness.

Cava is another region that’s much improved through better technology and savoir-faire. At the most recent M & S tasting, I was immensely impressed with the Organic Okhre Cava Brut Nature NV, £9.99, Marks & Spencer, not just for its refreshing lemony aromatics but a mouthwatering mousse of richly nutty fruit and an appetisingly bone dry aftertaste.

I’m a fan too of the fragrant pinot noir-scented and refreshingly dry, strawberryish 1 + 1 =3 Rosé Selección Cava U Mes U Fan Tres, £11.99, www.champagnewarehouse.com. And I am seriously impressed with the complexity of Gramona’s cavas, notably the 2007 Brut Nature Gran Reserva £16.95, Berry Bros. & Rudd (08002802440), whose stylish appley fizz with its richly developed bouquet and champagney mousse of bubbles is a stylishly winey, food-friendly sparkler.

The country that’s most rapidly gaining critical mass, and plaudits, for its thrilling sparkling wines is our very own green and pleasant land. To whet the appetite for more, you might try the invigoratingly youthful orchard fruit bubbles of Mike Roberts and family’s exceptional, intensely crisp, dry 2009 Ridgeview Merret South Ridge Brut, £19,99, Laithwaites or Chapel Down’s English Sparkling Rosé NV, £22, Marks & Spencer with its fine depth of tangy cranberry fruit and textured mousse. Until English fizz dances to the tunes of the Diamond Jubilee and the Olympics, let these be your harbingers of a summer of flag-waving euphoria.

Something for the Weekend

Something For the Easter Weekend

Couch Potato

2010 Tesco Finest Picpoul de Pinet

This inviting Southern French answer to muscadet is an attractively fruity Mediterranean white with crisp appley flavours and a mouthwateringly dry finish; just the ticket for shellfish with an R still in the month. £5.79, down from £7.29, Tesco.

Dinner Party

2010 Sainsbury's Taste the Difference Central Otago Pinot Noir

Fragrant berry and spicy tomes underpinned by a succulent cherry and mulberry fruit juiciness whose seductive quality is framed by spicy oak, freshness and grip. In red Burgundy mode but for under a tenner. £9.99, Sainsbury’s.

Splash Out

2008 Saint Aubin 1er Cru, Domaine du Pimont

Classy white Burgundy with rich appley flavour and sour creamy chardonnay fruit richness topped and tailed by incisive acidity and a nutty aftertaste. Even beats the fine Puligny Montrachet at twice the price. £22, Marks & Spencer