When Julie Flukiger received a wine-making kit from her husband, Marcel Flukiger, in 2005, little did she know that this new hobby would quickly become a business venture spanning several decades. Today, Julie and Marcel are proud owners of Aspen Peak Cellars, offering award-winning wines, lunch, dinner, live music, and the famous Snowshoe & Fondue event on a beautiful stretch of the North Fork South Platte River in Bailey, Colorado.
The Flukigers created a space featuring delicious cuisine paired with phenomenal wines, in a gorgeous setting that caters to everyone.
“Marcel and Julie are trained chefs, and we have an amazing executive chef, Kevin Shmaefsky,” Tracie Schaefer, Front of House Manager, explains. “The food is off the charts. The wine is amazing. Everything stands up on its own, but it’s designed to be paired.”
She goes on, “We’re definitely not pretentious. We’re super approachable, really casual, super fun, but the wine and the food, it’s a little bit of a surprise when you get there because you just don’t expect it from little old Bailey.”
Tracie has been with the Flukigers since 2014 and has been in awe of their resilience. Having rebuilt twice and pivoted through COVID, they found people flocked to their place for its upscale wine and food and casual elegance.
“We do have beautiful seating along the river, and we do a lot of rehearsal dinners, retirement, graduation, and bridal parties,” Tracie announces proudly.
While they are known for their wine, outdoor patio, live music, and delicious food, the Flukigers created an event called Snowshoe & Fondue to create some fun in the winter months and as an ode to Marcel’s Swiss heritage.
“Marcel is Swiss, so we serve his generational family authentic Swiss cheese fondue,” Tracie notes. “We start with the food & wine pairing challenge, six wines and six tapas, followed by the fondue, a glass of wine & live music."
The best part? The food and drink are well deserved after the snowshoeing event that starts the day.
“Marcel is famous for calling it the zero-calorie event,” Tracie laughs.
Reservations are made online, 45 days in advance, and the day starts at 10:30 AM at Aspen Peak Cellars. After waivers are signed, guides and staff are met, and dietary restrictions are conveyed, everyone caravans for a 15-20-minute drive to a private property at the base of Kenosha Pass owned by the nonprofit, Wilderness on Wheels.
“They’re an amazing nonprofit that has several miles of ADA boardwalk that’s built along the river and on the base of the mountain that allows wheelchair-bound people to get out and camp, hike, and fish and be outside in nature,” Tracie explains.
She continues, “We use the property in the winter, and we give them a very generous donation at the end of each season from our Snowshoe & Fondue proceeds to help them maintain the boardwalks and the trails.”
Guests who participate in the Snowshoe & Fondue event pay $135 for the entire day, which includes, snowshoes and poles, an hour and a half of snowshoeing with a guide, beautiful scenery for pictures, spiced wine at the top of the mountain, and then followed up with delicious fondue and tapas, a wine pairing, another complimentary glass of wine, and a live band back at the Aspen Peak Cellars.
“When you put it all together for the price,” Tracie says. “It’s just an amazing activity, and it has very Colorado vibes about it.”
No prior snowshoeing experience is required, and guests can choose among three routes based on their comfort and preferred level of exertion.
“There’s kind of a low-lying route,” Tracie explains. “There’s a midway where they get up to a nice vantage point for pictures, and then there’s a tougher route that we call the Gutbuster, which has a pretty significant elevation gain right at the end, but the views from the top are beautiful.”
Once at the top, spiced wine is served while taking in the views for about 20-30 minutes before descending and returning to Aspen Peak Cellars.
Either Marcel or Rachel, the winemaker, greets guests upon their return to explain the wine pairing challenge and why they paired certain items. The fun kicks into high gear as food and drinks flow, the wine challenge begins, and the live music rocks the venue.
“We rotate through probably 25 to 30 bands, and we do live music every Saturday and Sunday year-round,” Tracie says. “Some are just single players. Some are duos. Some are four and five-piece bands, but we just rotate through all of our local musicians, so the vibe is different every day.”
As the day comes to a close, guests are welcome to stay past the 3 or 3:30 official event ending and purchase more of the remarkable food and drink Aspen Peak Cellars has to offer.
This 21-and-over event is now in its 15th year and has averaged over 1,000 snowshoers in recent years. A social media boom last summer sent waves of people from around the world to Aspen Peak Cellars to experience the atmosphere and participate in the Snowshoe & Fondue experience, including Australians.
“It’s just a very unique kind of Colorado experience,” Tracie offers. “And it’s a great change of pace for the staff…when snowshoe season rolls around, we say, oh, this is going to be fun!”
“When you put it all together for the price,” Tracie says. “It’s just an amazing activity, and it has very Colorado vibes about it.”