Grapevine Trellises and Why You Need Them For Making Wine

Your final goal is making wine. But wine needs the product ingredients, and the most important of them is grapes. So you need to have grapes. The best way to have them is to grow them yourself. However, there is a problem, where do you start?

I'm sure you have already a place to grow your grapes, and you at some point you come across a problem: supporting your grapevines since the vines can't support themselves, due to the weight. You see, this is where trellis come into place and this is why they are in end effect, crucial to you having that wine to serve to your guests and boast about that 'it is home made.'

A trellis is basically a structure that supports the grapevines. You can see them in various sizes and shapes and while many people buy a decorative one, it is not so difficult to make your own. To start with you need 4 main components: line posts, end posts, support stakes and the wires.


Think about the trellis as a large fence. How big and what type it will become will ultimately depend on the type of grapes and the climate. If you're living in warmer climates, you need taller ones, while colder areas need shorter ones in order to get the grapevines ready for winter.

Some people make the mistake of first having the grape vines and then thinking of building their own trellis. The best is to build the trellis and then plant your vines. You can use various materials such as PVC pipe, aluminum, stainless steel as they are better weather resistant than others.

In a nutshell to build it consists of these steps: firs install the end posts. Next go with installing the brace posts, after which you should install the line posts. Once all the posts are done, you have to build the brace parts and then to bring it all together, you have to stretch the wires and tighten them.

When you buy the wire, you should get a galvanized high-tensile 12.5 gauge because it can deal with a lot of stress before it gets to the breaking point. If you build a good structure, you will really help the grapes grow in the best possible environment that they can be in, in order to have good quality and tasking wine. After all, the quality of your wine will strongly depend on how good the grapes are in the first place.