The basic goal of trellising is to distribute the fruit on the vine and provide air movement and sun to the berries, and to balance canopy growth and crop production. Trellising and pruning are carefully integrated to produce the best overall vineyard conditions.

The ideal in canopy management is to find an arrangement of vine leaves on the trellis that balances the many factors that influence fruit quality. These factors include things such as: the number of shoots per vine and the way in which they are placed on the trellis guide wires, the number of leaves per shoot and their orientation to the sun, the number of grape clusters per shoot and their shading within the canopy, as well as many other factors.

Trellis Systems
The vineyards at J are mostly trained using Vertical Shoot Positioning on a bi-lateral cordon except for Blocks 1, 2 and 3 at Eastside Vineyard which are trained on a Quadrilateral Cordon Lyre trellis system.

Vertical Shoot Positioning (VSP)
Vertical Shoot Positioning is designed to arrange shoots to grow upwards across guide wires. VSP became the standard for most California vineyards by the late 1990s. It controls the growth of the canopy for good sun and air flow, and doesn’t promote rot.

Lyre, or U-Shaped Trellis
To balance the canopy with vigorous root systems, we use a Quadrilateral Cordon "Lyre" trellising system. This is a U-shaped frame strung with catch wires, which opens the canopy, supports shoot growth and provides even sun exposure to achieve optimum ripeness.

Cordon Training
One of the most popular ways of training grape vines. The cordon is normally horizontal and can be bi-lateral or unilateral, with shoots emerging from the arm and trained vertically along additional wires. Typically it is spur pruned.