(LATimes) - Ringing in the New Year is hardly about the resolutions -- clearly, booze is the star. And 2012 might be alcohol’s best year in a while. Take Champagne sales. Worldwide, shipments of the bubbly were up 5.2% during the first half of 2011, according to the trade group Comite Interprofessionnel du Vin de Champagne, with 335 million bottles expected to traverse the world by the end of the year.