After The Abbey, Rosebud and I stumbled on down to Zeke’s Roadhouse, 625 Lincoln Rd, Miami Beach, 305-672-3118.  Now basically Zeke’s looks like someone threw around some bright colors, put a palm tree in the window, hung some string lights and opened a bar (in stark contrast to the rest of the uber design in South Beach) but you can’t beat it for value, 180 beers for $4 each!  I had one of my favorites, the Acme IPA.  Made with over a pound of fresh whole hops per barrel, it’s always delicious.  Rosebud had the Left Hand Brewing Company Milk Stout, chocolate/coffee/malty/roasted goodness.  After one more negligible stop, we decided to call it a night.  The next morning with the help of large doses of caffeine and after laying down a good base layer of fat and protein we trekked down to the soon-to-be wine drenched sands at 13th and Ocean.  We started in the south tent at the Vin di Vino corner to see if a friend of mine was working the event and initially to check out some of the great Italian wines they import.  Lo and behold though this time they decided to concentrate on their Austrian portfolio.  They had examples from Domane Wachau, Heinrich, Kracher, Loimer and Wieninger.  Representing Heinrich and Loimer was Andreas Wickhoff, Managing Director, Salzburg office for Premium Estates of Austria.  The Lois from Loimer, their entry level Gruner Veltliner (the most widely planted grape in Austria), was very good with notes of green apple, grapefruit and lime.  Crisp and refreshing, Lois is an abbreviation of the nearby town of Langenlois and also the name of owner/winemaker Fred Loimer’s son.  In my limited experience with red wines from the region, I’ve never really found any I was crazy about.  I’ve liked them in the past but have never really been blown away.  However, the three red examples from Heinrich were very good.  First was the Red, a blend of Zweigelt, St Laurent and Blaufrankisch (a grape native to Austria), with a mix of red and black fruit and notes of dried cherries and plums.  The single varietal bottling of Zweigelt was juicy with cherry and dark plum flavors and a hint of vanilla.  Finally, the single varietal bottling of St Laurent had flavors of blueberry and dark cherry with touches of dark chocolate and spice, very nice.  At the other table, we first tried Wieninger’s Gemischter Satz which translates as “mixed up sentence” and is in reference to the mixed field blend traditional to the Vienna region that may contain:  Weissburgunder,  Neuberger, Welschriesling, Gruner Veltliner, Sylvaner, Zierfandeler, Traminer and Riesling.  It would be a great little summer wine, easy to drink with tart citrus notes.  Next came the wines from Domane Wachau.  The best-known wine lands of Austria lie along the banks of the Danube and the most famous of these areas is probably the Wachau.  The Domane Wachau is a cooperative winery originated in the middle ages when it belonged to the Catholic Church.  We tried a number of their wines beginning with the Wachau Collection through to the Terrassen (signifying the wine is sourced from terraced vineyards) and finally the Einzellagen (or basically single vineyard) wines.  Even Rosebud, who usually doesn’t really care for white wines, was highly impressed.  Our favorites were probably the Gruner Veltliner Smaragd Achleiten and Gruner Veltliner Smaragd Kellerberg, both 2007’s.  Smaragd denotes the highest level of quality in the Wachau and are made from grapes that are physiologically completely ripe and have over 12% alcohol content (and also the most aging potential).  Achleiten and Kellerberg are vineyard sites.  They both had peach and apricot flavors and the Kellerberg, especially, showed the white pepper for which Gruner Veltliner is known, pretty amazing stuff.  After another couple of hours of tasting, we meandered back up to The National for cocktails and schmoozing in the hopes of working some tickets to the next day’s event.  Stay tuned……

This article appears in Mar 4-10, 2009.