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Like what?  I don't necessarily need somehing from Champagne.  I just don't want something that's going to be a lot sweeter, for example, or something lighter and more acidic.  "Reasonably Champagne-like" would be fine.

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You can find plenty of cavas for cheap that taste a lot like mass-market non-vintage Champagne. I'm not used to seeing very many that come in halves of splits though, probably because they're so cheap anyway.

You might try Jaume Serra Cristalino Brut, which seems to be available just about everywhere. It's a decent wine that has some good fruit and a slightly bitter lingering minerality reminiscent of a lot of non-vintage Champagnes (especially the ones with a lot of chardonnay in the blend). I think it'd work fine for cocktails, especially for the price, which is about $6 a bottle here in DC. I know they also bottle it in halves, which go for around $4 a pop. (Halfwitwines.com has it for that price and shipping's free; they don't currently ship to New York, but I talked to them about a month ago and they indicated that they'd be able to ship to most places on the east coast by February.)

Eric