WineInk: Nick Heileman named Michelin Wine Star

It was another win for the Aspen wine community and a huge moment for Bosq’s Nick Heileman.

This past Monday, the Michelin Guide announced their list of honorees for 2025, and Nick Heileman, general manager and wine director of Aspen’s Bosq, was named winner of the 2025 Michelin Guide Colorado Sommelier Award. And that’s not even the best part of his week. More on that later.

This marks the second year in a row that an Aspen wine professional has received the coveted Michelin award. In 2024, wine director Chris Dunaway received the Colorado Sommelier Award for his work at The Little Nell hotel.

“I’m just really excited about the award and just honored, actually, to be part of the team at Bosq and really the entire Aspen restaurant community,” said Heileman about the award he accepted during a ceremony on Monday night at Denver’s Mile High Station. In addition to his own honor, Bosq — Barclay and Molly Dodge’s temple of seasonal gastronomy — was again awarded a Michelin star for the third year in a row in recognition of the restaurant’s cuisine.

This is just the third year that Michelin has had a Colorado awards program, but globally, the star awards are recognized as the mark of quality and excellence for restaurants and hotels.

“We are so happy for Nick,” said Barclay Dodge. “We love that the wine program he developed pairs so well with the kitchen and pastry program at Bosq. We all work closely together and are so pleased that we are becoming as well-known as a wine-driven restaurant as we are for our food.”

Bosq is unique in that it focuses on creating menus for each evening’s guests that highlight the foods of the seasons. “Each menu is a reflection of the season’s bounty, shaped by the rhythms of Aspen’s wilderness” is how their mission is described by Dodge. With just 32 seats, including at the bar, a meal at Bosq is more than just dinner — it is a bespoke, only-in-Aspen culinary experience.

That concept shapes the way the wine program has been curated by Heileman and his colleagues.

“At Bosq, the kitchen is the center of the universe, and the wine program is responsible for amplifying the culinary creativity that comes out of that kitchen. The wines need to adapt seasonally, and even nightly, depending upon what the kitchen is preparing,” he explained.

“We are not like a lot of other Aspen wine programs that may have thousands of great wines on their lists,” he added. “At Bosq, we have maybe 350 selections or so, and they are always evolving.”

Rather than ordering wines from the list, Bosq’s culinary culture encourages wine pairings with the multi-course menus.

“I would say that over half of our guests opt for the pairing options instead of selecting wines from the list,” Heileman said.

The menu at Bosq features a five-course “choose your own” tasting menu for $195 per person, which can be supplemented with the five-course sommelier pairing for an additional $145. There is also an indulgent nine-course chef’s tasting menu and a “fine and rare wines” pairing that might include vintage wines from prestigious producers like Jean-Louis Chave Hermitage and dessert wines from Château d’Yquem.

Bosq’s guests tend to be both sophisticated and adventurous in their culinary and wine experiences, and that, too, informs Bosq’s wine program.

“We also try and find wines from lesser-known places like Greek wines from Santorini or Spanish wines from Andalusia and selections from biodynamic producers,” Heileman noted.

His journey to become Colorado Sommelier of the Year began in St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands, where he grew up. His mother was a private chef on yachts and fostered a love of food and wine. He traveled extensively and found his way to a career in fine dining in Sydney, Australia, while in his early 20s: “A friend said I should come to Aspen, so I came to spend a season, and now eight years later, here I am.”

He is pleased to be part of one of America’s great wine towns.

“What town in the world with 7,000 people has such an amazing wine community with so many great lists and passionate wine pros? I can’t think of many, if any,” he said. “I hope another Aspen sommelier can win this award next year and keep it in Aspen. Such a great circle of people.”

For his part, last year’s winner, Chris Dunaway, is simply pleased to be followed by a fellow Aspen sommelier.

“Big congratulations to Nick! It’s such an extraordinary honor and well-deserved,” Dunaway wrote in an email. “He’s put a tremendous amount of thought and intention behind the brilliance his team is creating at Bosq. Two years running for Aspen!”

As I wrote at the top, winning the Michelin award, though great, is not the highlight of Heileman’s week. As we spoke, he was driving back from Denver to his home in Aspen, where family and friends are pouring in to attend his wedding this Saturday to his beloved Lexie Oeth at the T-Lazy 7 Ranch.

“What a week it is for Nick!” said Barclay Dodge in an understatement.

Congratulations to all. I bet the wedding wines will be outstanding.