War of the Rosés! Should Whispering Angel be afraid of this £13 Asda rosé?

Screaming Devil may be coming for Whispering Angel’s crown of rose of the summer

Whispering Angel should be flattered, it’s probably the most imitated and obsessed-over wine in the world.

Every day there’s a new Instagram post, TikTok video or newspaper article advising people to ignore the hype, save their money and drink an alternative rosé instead, ‘for a fraction of the price’. Most of those have been written or filmed by me, so I’d know.

But should Whispering Angel be worried about its latest competitor, Screaming Devil Rosé, £13 from Asda?

After all, they’re neck and neck on peer-to-peer wine scoring app, Vivino, both with a healthy 4.1/5 score.

Admittedly, Screaming Devil has 127 customer ratings and Whispering Angel has 8,6284, but still.

War of the Rosés, Whispering Angel vs Screaming Devil (Picture: Rob Buckhaven)

First impressions, and I’m just going to put it out there, someone in marketing could have been more imaginative with the brand name, but who cares, frankly, when it’s £7 cheaper than Whispering Angel.

The name is clearly a reference to its competitor, in reverse, but which rosé is better?

Obviously, Screaming Devil had a recent viral moment on TikTok as ‘the new Whispering Angel’, quelle surprise. I get it, if it’s not big on social media, it never happened. ‘Phone drinks first’ and all that.

But much like Paris Hilton handing Kim Kardashian her big break, what is it about Whispering Angel that makes it so influential and gives us such an insatiable thirst for it?

We have Sacha Lichine to thank, the man driving the Whispering Angel juggernaut. Heck, he’s not just driving it, he built the thing. Before Sacha bought the Chateau d’Esclans estate in Provence back in 2006, where he produces Whispering Angel, rosé wasn’t even regarded as real wine by some people.

Lichine hustled for years before his rosé became big, knocking on doors, gradually hosting events at Ascot, Wimbledon and Goodwood. From there, everyone seemed to be drinking pink, from the Royals to Adele. He was then pursued by Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy (LVMH) to form a strategic alliance to sit alongside their wine brands such as Veuve Clicquot and Moët and Chandon. The rest is history.

Talk about right time, right place, because now we live in a world of photo dumps, carousels and hashtags like #roséallday, that textbook tutu pink colour is highly ‘grammable. It even works for guys, just look at the hashtag #brosé that’s taken off.

Quality-wise, with grapes bought in from top negotiants to attain the ripest and highest quality, we’re talking about a premium product in Whispering Angel. So premium, in fact, that it’s reflected in the high-end pricing strategy, which at the time straddled madness and genius. Spoiler alert, it paid off, otherwise I wouldn’t be writing this piece.

So, now we understand the genesis of Whispering Angel’s popularity and very little about Screaming Devil’s story, let’s see how they perform against each other in a taste-off. My scores are as follows…

Whispering Angel

Whispering Angel, £21.99, Waitrose

Colour: light ballet slipper pink

Nose: muted (you have to work hard to find the aromas), light notes of candied clementine skin with a touch of smokiness

Palate: lean textured, bone dry with recessive notes of apricot blossom and satsuma sherbet with a mineral note on the long and refreshing finish

Conclusion: an elegant wine with barely-there citrus and stone fruit flavours and a refreshing finish

Rating: 7.5/10

Screaming Devil

Screaming Devil, £13, Asda

Colour: light salmon/coral pink

Nose: instantly perceptible notes of peach and tangerine

Palate: dry with bright, opulent and textural notes of nectarine, tinned peach and white pepper

Conclusion: A generous style of rosé with rich notes of stone fruit and a lively finish

Rating: 8/10

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