What “Head-Trained” Vines Are — And Why Ours Look Old-School

If you’ve ever driven past our vineyard and thought, huh, those vines look kind of wild — you’re not wrong. No wires. No neat rows strung up like a fence. Just short, gnarled trunks standing on their own, arms reaching out in every direction like a bunch of little wooden candelabras. That’s called head training, and it’s one of the oldest ways to grow a grapevine. It’s also the reason we’re able to dry farm.

What does “head-trained” actually mean?

A head-trained vine has no trellis. Instead of tying canes to wires strung between posts, the vine is pruned each year into a low, free-standing shape — a short trunk with a handful of spurs coming off the top, like a fist with fingers spread open. Some people call it “goblet” training, or “gobelet,” because of the shape.

It’s the way grapes were grown in California before drip irrigation showed up in the 1970s and trellising became the default. Before that, this was just how you grew a vine — a traditional European style of growing brought over by Italian immigrants and used by the earliest grape growers in California.

Why we grow this way — it comes down to water

Here’s the part that actually matters for the wine in your glass: we don’t irrigate. Our vines get what falls from the sky and whatever they can pull up from the ground themselves. That’s called dry farming, and head training is what makes it possible.

 UC Davis viticulture professor explains that head training keeps a vine smaller, with less wood — which means it draws on fewer carbohydrates and less water to sustain itself. Fewer wires and canes to feed means the vine can get by on rainfall alone, in a soil that holds onto moisture the way ours does.

There’s a practical bonus too. Head training gives the vine natural shade, keeps air moving through the canopy on hot days, and leaves the rows open enough to work the soil between them — something you can’t really do once wires are in the way.

Old-school on purpose. We didn’t choose head training to look rustic for photos. We chose it because it’s the shape that lets a vine survive on nothing but Contra Costa rain and sandy loam.

Isn’t a trellis just easier?

Sure — for a lot of vineyards, yes. Trellising lets a vine carry more wood, more leaves, more fruit, and it’s easier to farm with a tractor and irrigation lines. But more wood and more leaves also means the vine is thirstier. If you’re not watering it, that trade-off stops making sense.

Head or goblet-style training made sense for California’s earliest grape growers precisely because it keeps the vine small, and small vines need little to no irrigation — a real advantage in lower-vigor sites, or soil that doesn’t hold much water to begin with.

What this has to do with the sandy loam under our feet

Dry farming isn’t something you can decide to do everywhere. The soil has to be able to hold enough winter and spring moisture to carry the vine through a dry California summer. Vines growing in deeper, moderate-to-heavy soils are simply better suited to dry farming than vines in shallow, rocky, light soils — the ground itself has to do a lot of the work.

Our sandy loam in Knightsen, with the delta breeze moving through most afternoons, happens to be a soil and climate combination where this old style of farming still works. That’s not a coincidence — it’s a big part of why we farm the way we do.

Does head training change what’s in the bottle?

Indirectly, yes. A head-trained, dry-farmed vine isn’t chasing a big crop. It’s putting its limited water and energy into fewer clusters, which tends to mean more concentrated fruit. It’s less about the training system itself and more about everything the training system allows — no irrigation, a smaller vine, roots that have to go looking for water instead of waiting for a drip line to deliver it.

Key takeaways:

• Head-trained vines have no trellis — just a low, free-standing trunk pruned into an open shape each year
• It’s the traditional way most California vineyards were grown before drip irrigation became standard
• Head training keeps a vine smaller, so it needs less water — which is what makes dry farming possible
• Our sandy loam soil in Knightsen and the delta breeze are part of why this old-school method still works here
• It’s a farming decision, not an aesthetic one — though we’ll admit the vines are pretty striking to look at in person

FAQ

What is head training in grapevines? Head training is a way of pruning a vine into a short, free-standing trunk with no trellis or wires — the canes fan out from the top like spokes. It’s one of the oldest vine-training methods and is closely tied to dry farming in California.

Why are head-trained vines used for dry farming? Head training keeps the vine smaller and reduces the amount of wood it has to support, so it needs less water to stay healthy. That makes it possible to farm without irrigation, relying on rainfall and what the soil holds onto.

Is head training the same as “old vines”? Not exactly. Head training is a pruning method — it can be used on a vine of any age. “Old vines” refers to how long a vine has been in the ground. Many old vines in California happen to be head-trained, because that was the standard method when they were planted, but the two ideas aren’t interchangeable.

Can any vineyard be dry farmed if it’s head-trained? No. Head training helps, but the soil has to be able to hold enough moisture through the dry season on its own. Shallow or rocky soils generally can’t support dry farming, regardless of how the vine is trained.

Try it for yourself

Our old-vine Zinfandel is grown this way — dry-farmed, head-trained, on our family’s sandy loam in Knightsen. If you’re curious what that actually tastes like in the glass, try our Zinfandel or explore the Contra Costa Blend.

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