Nick Heileman, the general manager and wine director at Bosq in Aspen, is not afraid to get his hands dirty. The MICHELIN-Starred restaurant is known for food that changes with the mountain town’s strong seasons, and Heileman likes to embed with the kitchen team as they hunt for ingredients in forests and on farms.
In the spring, when Aspen’s peaks are covered in blooms and the Bosq team is out digging up lilac blossoms, rhubarb and green strawberries, Heileman is thinking of fresh flavors as he selects an old-vine Albariño pairing. When foraged porcini and chanterelle mushrooms get top billing in the menu come fall, the crisp air of the hunt points him to a red Burgundy.
“It’s really been a fun journey developing my chemistry with the kitchen and honing in on the ingredients they love to focus on throughout the season so I can get a good feel for predicting the changes on our menu before they happen,” Heileman says.
The winner of this year’s MICHELIN Guide Colorado Sommelier award, presented in partnership with Franciacorta, restaurants have long played a role in Heileman’s life. His mother was a chef “and really nurtured my love of food from a young age,” he says. He first started working in restaurants when he was 10, and began to focus on wine after taking up with a wine bar in Sydney when he was 22.
In 2019, he joined Bosq as a general manager and wine director. He also serves as the bar manager, helping to put together the restaurant’s cocktail program and nonalcoholic pairing.
The wine list at Bosq changes as much as the menu: as the kitchen team updates its dishes throughout the year, Heileman rewrites his selection, based on his time collaborating with the research and development process.
“That typically results in our wine offering being filled with food-friendly wines,” he says. “Our wines really reflect what flavors are making it onto the plate each time of year.”
That usually means wines from biodynamic and family-owned wineries, with a preference for the old-world rather than the new, Heileman says. Still, he loves to showcase wines from less-celebrated wine regions, and points to an Assyrtiko from Santorini, a single-vineyard Cinsault from Chile and a dry Palomino Fino from Andalusia as some of his favorites of the season.
With Bosq’s tasting menu – filled with unusual and ambitious ingredients and preparations – coming up with a pairing can be an exercise in creative thinking.
For an umami-rich dish known as deer bark, brushed with a venison garum and topped with cured shaved venison heart, Heileman opts for a Shiokawa “Cowboy” Yamahai Junmai Ginjo Genshu sake that’s “dense in smoky, cedarwood aromas and pairs beautifully with the subtle sweetness of the parsnip skin,” he says.
“It was such a unique dish that it forced me to think out of the box and beyond the world of wines."
Hero image: Nick Heileman
