A new winery has moved into the OKC Farmer's Market District, providing guests an opportunity to sample wine with a story.
Backyard Vineyards, 1200 West Reno Ave., opened earlier this year after years of work from owners Jalynn and Roger Smith to bring the vision to life.
"We got funded and signed the lease for this property in August of 2021 and we opened March of 2024, so it's been many years in the making," said Jalynn Smith. "We have 12 1,000-liter tanks and we stored them in our garage for three years. Because of all the supply chain issues and everything going up in price, we wanted to get them and have them."
California roots, Oklahoma wine
When the couple moved from California to Oklahoma in 2016, they found themselves missing one of their favorite California pastimes of relaxing at local wineries.
"If you can't find something that you like, create it yourself," Jalynn Smith said. "I grew up in the wine industry back home and we were at a winery every weekend pre-kids. That's what we would do on a Sunday is just hang out in different tasting rooms and we missed that culture so much here, so we decided to try to figure out how to open it ourselves."
Now, alongside Roger's brother Shane Smith, they produce a selection of both sweet and dry wines in their OKC location, sourcing their grapes in concentrate form from various areas of California, including Mariposa, Modesto, Lodi and Woodbridge.
The Smiths' wines all start as dry wines, with their sweet wines then having all natural fruit purees added to them to create signature flavor profiles. Dry wines are aged no less than six months at Backyard before bottling, while sweet wines get a minimum of 30 days.
Once wines pass the quality control tests — performed by Shane and Roger — they're filtered and bottled.
"We use micron grade filters, so it's going to filter out most of your sediments, your particulates, any bacterial growth that might have occurred in the wine or any type of contaminants. One thing we don't want is contaminants in the wine," Shane Smith said.
A story in every bottle
Each wine or bottle design has a story or connection to the Smiths. The signature "P" on the Peach Chardonnay bottle is a tribute to Jalynn and Roger Smith's daughter Prescott, the Red Bud Strawberry White Zinfandel is named for the Oklahoma state tree.
Some of the stories delve even deeper for the family.
Backyard's Tempranillo, The Hotshot, is named for the Granite Mountain Hotshots, a group of 20 firefighters — that included friends of Roger Smith — 19 of whom died during the Yarnell Hill Fire in Arizona in June 28, 2013. The fire remains one of the deadliest wildland fires for U.S. firefighters. On the label, all 20 men's names are listed, a tribute to their sacrifice.
Backyard currently offers 10 wines to choose from, and Jalynn Smith said she anticipates new varieties in the near future based on their recent grape procurement, including a Raspberry White Zinfandel and a Peach Syrah.
Guests of the winery can enjoy wine flights including samples of any three or four wines from the winery's list, for $15 or $18, respectively. Wine can also be purchased by the glass for $8 to $10.50 depending on the variety.
The winery also offers wine cocktails, a selection of beer, charcuterie, tours of the facility and the option to purchase wines by the bottle or case.
Backyard Vineyards
- Where: 1200 West Reno Ave.
- Hours: 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays; 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; and noon to 5 p.m. Sundays.
- Contact: Go online to https://backyardvineyardsokc.com/.
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