The best New Year's Eve cocktails for a warm Australian night are cold, sparkling and easy: the French 75, the Kir Royale and the Bellini lead our eight. Each comes in millilitres with its source and its bottle. They are written for Thursday 31 December 2026, the New Year's Eve that brings in 2027.
Quick picks
- Gabriel Boudier Crème de Cassis: Dijon blackcurrant liqueur for the Kir Royale and the jug below.
- Hayman's London Dry Gin: a classic dry gin for the French 75.
- Kientzler Crémant d'Alsace: dry, traditional method bubbles for mixing, so the Champagne can stay in the glass where it counts.
A standard drink in Australia is 10 g of pure alcohol. Each drink below shows its own figure, worked out from label strengths, taking prosecco at 11 per cent and Champagne or crémant at 12 per cent. Some bottles run a little higher, such as Hébrart at 12.5 per cent, so check your label. Pour with a jigger, and keep water and food on the table.
Which bubbles should you use for New Year's Eve cocktails?
Use the good bottle where the wine does the talking, and a mixing bottle where other ingredients carry the drink. Nobody should pour good Champagne into a jug.
| Style | How it is made | Use it for | Our bottles |
|---|---|---|---|
| Champagne | Second fermentation in the bottle, and at least 15 months in the cellar before release | Champagne Cocktail, Kir Royale, or simply on its own | Gosset Grande Réserve, Hébrart Sélection Brut |
| Crémant | French sparkling wine by the same traditional method, from outside Champagne | French 75, French 77, the jug | Kientzler Crémant d'Alsace, Arnaud Lambert Crémant de Loire |
| Prosecco | Second fermentation in a sealed tank, which keeps the fruit up front | Bellini, peach and berry drinks | Lamberti Prosecco DOC Extra Dry |
Gosset ages its Grande Réserve for at least four years and Hébrart's Sélection is 70 per cent Pinot Noir from Mareuil-sur-Aÿ and Avenay, so both have plenty to say on their own. Our Champagne Guide goes further, and Champagne for Christmas covers bottles to give. Where the IBA names Champagne below, any other sparkling wine makes a fair variation rather than the official drink.
The eight New Year's Eve cocktails for 2027
1. French 75
Spec (IBA). 30 ml gin, 15 ml fresh lemon juice and 15 ml sugar syrup, shaken with ice and strained into a flute, then topped with 60 ml Champagne and stirred gently. About 1.5 standard drinks.
Hayman's London Dry at 41.2 per cent is our first pick, and Gabriel Boudier London Dry at 40 per cent is the Dijon alternative. Our gin styles guide covers London Dry and the rest.
2. French 77
Spec (Difford's Guide). 22 ml elderflower liqueur and 5 ml fresh lemon juice in a chilled flute, topped with 133 ml brut Champagne or sparkling wine, with a lemon twist. About 1.6 standard drinks.
Difford's describes it as a floral riff on the French 75, created by its founder Simon Difford in 2006, so it has no gin. Suro Elderflower Liqueur at 20 per cent is the bottle. A crémant is our choice here, since the elderflower takes the lead.
3. Kir Royale, and two variations
Spec (IBA). 10 ml crème de cassis in the glass, topped with 90 ml Champagne. About 1.0 standard drink. Our Christmas cocktails has the plain Kir with white wine for the week before.
Two cassis to choose from. Gabriel Boudier Crème de Cassis at 20 per cent is made in Dijon under the protected Cassis de Dijon name, and is fresh and long on the palate. Vedrenne Crème de Cassis at 16 per cent comes from Nuits-Saint-Georges and is concentrated and aromatic.
The variations are ours, with the same 10 ml measure. Gabriel Boudier Crème de Framboise makes a deep ruby glass with a tangy edge. Gabriel Boudier Crème de Pêche gives a softer, riper drink. Both come to about 1.0 standard drink. Our guide to types of liqueur covers the rest of the fruit shelf.
4. Champagne Cocktail
Spec (IBA). A sugar cube with 2 dashes of Angostura bitters in a large Champagne glass, 10 ml cognac, 90 ml chilled Champagne poured gently, with orange zest and a maraschino cherry. A few drops of Grand Marnier are optional. About 1.2 standard drinks.
The cognac matters more than its 10 ml suggests. François Voyer Terres de Grande Champagne is floral with violet and linden, and Jean Fillioux COQ is a young, fresh Grande Champagne described as perfect for some cocktails. Either works, and Luxardo cherries finish the glass. We do not carry Angostura, so buy it with your groceries.
5. Bellini, in peach season
Spec (IBA). 50 ml white peach puree in a mixing glass with ice, topped with 100 ml prosecco, stirred gently and poured into a chilled flute. About 0.9 standard drinks, the lowest of the eight.
This is where an Australian New Year's Eve has the edge. Australian peaches run from November to March, so the night falls right in season. Peel and blend one ripe white peach for two glasses, then pour with Lamberti Prosecco.
Short of peaches, our own short cut is 15 ml Gabriel Boudier Crème de Pêche with 100 ml prosecco, about 1.1 standard drinks. It is a variation, not a Bellini. The IBA also lists a Rossini with strawberry puree and a Puccini with mandarin juice, and both suit an Australian summer.
6. Bourbon and Champagne, the Seelbach
This one comes with a warning about its story. The Seelbach was long sold as a pre-Prohibition drink from the Louisville hotel of that name, and in 2016 bartender Adam Seger admitted he invented both the drink and the tale in the 1990s. It is still a good idea: bourbon and Champagne work well together.
Spec (ours, based on Punch's recipe). 30 ml bourbon, 15 ml triple sec and 2 dashes of bitters, stirred with ice and strained into a flute, topped with 90 ml Champagne, with an orange peel. Punch uses 7 dashes each of Angostura and Peychaud's, which we scale back for a less bitter glass. About 2.4 standard drinks, the strongest here, so measure the bourbon.
Willett Pot Still Reserve brings a vanilla and lemon-cake nose that stands up to the wine. At 47 per cent, it is also why this glass reaches 2.4. Gabriel Boudier Triple Sec and Peychaud's Bitters finish the list.
7. Death in the Afternoon
Absinthe and Champagne, credited to Ernest Hemingway in the 1935 book So Red the Nose, or Breath in the Afternoon, according to Punch.
Spec (Difford's Guide). 10 ml absinthe and 5 ml rich sugar syrup stirred in a chilled flute, topped with 133 ml brut sparkling wine, with citrus zest expressed over the top and a rose petal. About 1.7 standard drinks.
We use this spec rather than the original because Difford's tones down the book's far larger measure of absinthe. Absente is 55 per cent, stronger than anything else on this page, so keep the pour to 10 ml. Wormwood, aniseed and mint come through the wine. Our guide on how to drink absinthe has the rest.
8. A cassis and crémant jug
Spec (ours). For eight glasses: 80 ml Gabriel Boudier Crème de Cassis, one 750 ml bottle of cold crémant, 320 ml cold soda water, and sliced orange and lemon. Put the cassis and fruit in a jug, add the crémant and soda just before pouring, and stir once. Serve over ice. About 1.0 standard drink a glass.
It is a stretched Kir Royale, in the spirit of Vedrenne's cassis spritz with crémant and tonic over plenty of ice. Arnaud Lambert or Kientzler both do the job.
How do you make drinks for a crowd?
Batch the still parts, chill them, and add the bubbles at the last minute. New Year's Eve falls on a Thursday this time, with Friday 1 January 2027 a public holiday, so a short shopping list and a batch you can pour straight from the fridge make sense. A French 75 for eight is 240 ml gin, 120 ml lemon juice squeezed that day and 120 ml sugar syrup, plus 80 ml cold water to stand in for the dilution you would get from shaking. Keep the batch in the fridge, pour 70 ml into each flute and top each with 60 ml sparkling wine. One bottle tops twelve glasses, so a batch of eight leaves some over.
Keep ice out of the batch, keep the wine in the fridge until the moment you pour, and keep a jug of water beside the glasses. Every glass is the same strength if you measure, which is the point of batching.
Which New Year's Eve drinks are lower in strength?
The Bellini, the Kir Royale and the jug are the lowest-strength pours on this page, at about 0.9 to 1.0 standard drinks each. Two longer drinks have their own pages: our limoncello spritz recipe and our Hugo Spritz, which also gives an alcohol-free Hugo with elderflower syrup. For the rest of the season, see our summer cocktails.
New Year's Eve cocktails FAQ
Can you use prosecco for a French 75?
Yes, though the IBA spec names Champagne, so call it a variation. Prosecco is made in a tank and tastes fruitier and softer, which suits lemon and gin well enough. Use a brut style if you can find one, and it comes to about 1.5 standard drinks with Hayman's gin.
What is the difference between a Kir and a Kir Royale?
The wine. The IBA makes a Kir with 10 ml crème de cassis and 90 ml dry white wine, and a Kir Royale with Champagne in place of the white wine. The liqueur and the measure stay the same, so the difference comes down to bubbles and the character of the wine.
How far ahead can you batch NYE cocktails?
Squeeze the citrus and mix the still parts on the day, then keep them cold in the fridge until you need them. The IBA asks for fresh lemon juice in its French 75, so we would not squeeze it the night before. Add sparkling wine only as you pour each glass.
How many bottles of Champagne do you need?
Work it out by the glass. One 750 ml bottle tops twelve French 75s at 60 ml, about eight Kir Royales or Champagne Cocktails at 90 ml, and about five Death in the Afternoons at 133 ml. Buy for the guests you have and the drinks you plan, and keep it simple.
What gin suits a French 75?
A classic dry gin, because lemon, sugar and wine need a firm juniper line to hold them up. Hayman's London Dry is our pick, and Gabriel Boudier London Dry is a good alternative. Save floral or strongly flavoured gins for a drink where they can lead, such as a gin and tonic.
Where to start
- The easiest of the eight: Gabriel Boudier Crème de Cassis with any dry sparkling wine.
- The classic: Hayman's London Dry with Hébrart Sélection Brut.
- For a crowd: Arnaud Lambert Crémant de Loire and the jug above.
- In peach season: Lamberti Prosecco and ripe white peaches.
The bottles for these New Year's Eve cocktails are in our Champagne, Sparkling Wine, Liqueurs and Gin ranges. The citrus and the jigger are up to you.