A NEW dining experience is being offered in Bude as one restaurant’s wine menu goes digital.

‘The Lord Tennyson’, at the Falcon Hotel, is believed to be the first restaurant in Bude to offer guests the option of viewing a digital wine list on a tablet.

Rupert Brendon said: “The tablet allows the guest to enlarge the picture of the bottle and label, and read the full tasting notes provided by the vineyard or shipper. And I have added some personal notes including any professional reviews and scores of the wine and the vintage”.

The standard wine list of 22 wines will be available throughout the hotel, but the new ‘Premium Wine’ list on the tablets is only available in the Lord Tennyson Restaurant.

This list contains a selection of 24 premium vintage wines — these are to be served in restaurant’s new glassware and decanters.

Mr Brendon is a wine enthusiast and, together with his wife Christine, has visited many vineyards in both hemispheres.

He said: “All these rare vintage wines were personally tasted and selected by me and the Falcon wine committee who found them to be drinking perfectly now.

“My goal with the digital wine list was to not only illustrate the bottle and label, but to include informative and entertaining tasting notes, regardless of the guest’s wine knowledge or expertise.

“Most wine lists offer no such advice or explanation for offering the wine on their list in the first place. When selecting a wine for our list (or my own cellar) I rely a lot on professional wine critics’ reviews and their scores, and include any personal experience of the wine, together with the views of our tasting panel.”

Those who visit the restaurant will be able to try out this new style of choosing wine. There is also the added bonus of receiving advice on each wine via the tablets and the assurance that the wines on the list have been chosen by a select wine committee, who hopefully know a thing or two about good wine.