Flying T Wine

Vines below Battlerock

The Flying T Vineyard is a single acre of vines on a south-facing slope at the foot of Battlerock, a sandstone formation in McElmo Canyon in the canyon country of southwestern Colorado. The Colorado Wine listing calls the rock “the infamous landmark.” The winery’s own page calls it “legendary.” From the vines the ground falls away to McElmo Creek and to irrigated hay fields. The family credits the site to warm summer days, cool high-desert nights, and the heat the sandstone gathers. A 2024 RACER article placed the ranch “way up in the 6,182ft heights of Cortez.” Visits are by appointment only.

The vines are tended through the year. They are pruned in spring, fed with organic material, watered continuously, pruned again through the growing season, and netted in the fall. Harvest, the family writes, “is always a family and friends event.”

The vineyard makes one wine, Flying T Red. The 2022 Colorado Red is a Merlot, and the winery lists its notes as strawberry, cherry, spice, and honey. It sells for $45 a bottle. The 2021 is sold out. It was a blend of 70 percent Merlot, 20 percent Cabernet Sauvignon, and 10 percent Cabernet Franc. A line signed “KT” heads the winery’s wine page: “Flying T Red is born from the Colorado Canyon Country rock and sand, hot days and cool nights form the unique characteristics of this fine red.”

Grass, alfalfa, and an acre of grapes

John and Kathy Tomac founded Flying T Ranch in 1993. John had retired from World Cup mountain-bike racing and is a member of the United States Bicycling Hall of Fame. The family of John, Kathy, Greg, and Eli settled in McElmo Canyon to run a working farm and ranch. They grew grass and alfalfa, and soon afterward they planted the vineyard below Battlerock.

The track on the ranch

John also built a track on the ranch, and Eli trained on it from a young age. The Journal of Cortez, citing The Denver Post, reported that Eli started racing at 4. He turned professional in 2010. According to RACER, he kept the ranch and its winery as his home base for his whole career. Over 17 professional seasons he won the AMA Supercross 450SX title in 2020 and 2022. He took the 450MX championship in 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2022. He won the 2024 FIM World Supercross Championship in the SX1 class. He ranks second on the all-time 450SX wins list, with 57 main-event victories. In August 2024, home in Cortez after a podium at the Ironman National in Indiana, he told RACER: “We did it our way and it worked out.”

In September 2026, at 33, Eli announced his retirement. The Journal reported it would take effect after the last of three SMX playoff rounds, on Sept. 26, 2026. “Racing has been the only thing I’ve woken up to and known the last 25 years,” he said, “but I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”