What is Whispering Angel - the rose celebrated by Adele and is it worth the hype?

Whispering Angel is having a moment.

Celebrities from Adele to Jessie Ware have sung the £20 wine's praises, which is a classic Côtes de Provence rosé, and the brand says sales are rocketing - it even accounts for about 20 percent of all Provencal glugged in the US.

"My first emergency run at the grocery store was for Whispering Angel and ketchup," Adele revealed to Voguewhen discussing life in the Covid lockdown. "Whispering Angel turned me into a barking dog. It did not make me whisper."

“What we’ve been able to craft is probably the greatest wine brand that’s come out of France in the last 20 years,” Sacha Lichine, the owner of Chateau d’Esclans, who owns the estate that makes the brand, told Dujour.

"I think everyone was ready for something of this nature and style,” he added. “Years ago, you’d go to Saint Tropez or the French Riviera and everyone was drinking cheap rosé on ice. Now it’s become a real wine. We laid the groundwork for the idea that rosé should be taken seriously.”

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And now, cheaper dupes are going viral from people claiming they've found wines that taste the same.

TikTok user Ashley Stobart, known as @thecosmeticconsultant, shared a £5 wine from Aldi called Pierre Jaurant Sud De France Rosé, which she said tasted the same.

Meanwhile, Lidl sells Vallée Du Sud Languedoc Rosé 75cl which, according to their Master of Wine Richard Bampfield, "is a perfect proxy" for Whispering Angel. It costs £6.99, shoppers can save up to £13 compared to its usual price.

Bampfield added: "Lidl’s Vallée Du Sud Languedoc Rosé is a highly attractive alternative to the best-seller. Similarly to Whispering Angel, it is fashionably pale, summer fruit-scented and has good body and length, typical of top southern French rosés. Also, it looks excellent value compared to rosés from Provence."

With all this said - is Whispering Angel worth the hype?

Whisper it, but no.

Fenchurch Restaurant at London's Sky Garden, London’s highest public garden, has teamed up with the brand to open a pop-up bar where people can down the wine.

Which is exactly what this writer did.

Alongside some sharing food including arancini, bbq chicken wings and burrata, after half a bottle of the stuff I can only conclude that it tastes like every generice rose. Good, but nothing to write home about, the wine tasted just like that - wine - with no particularly unique flavour profile to distinguish it from any other sub-par plonk.

Viral status and celebrity endorsements can go a long way to make a wine's reputation soar, but at the end of the day the proof is in the tasting.

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