Gary,
I live in upstate NY, and have some 1 and 2 year old vinifera grapes in the ground. I have a very heavy clay/loam soil that I did not trench/tile, but given the obvious drainage patterns and corresponding stunted vine growth, I plan to. The best, of course, would be to use a large back hoe to trench below (6ft) the intended planting locations, line the trench with gravel, lay drain tile, cover with gravel, then amend the soil with sand/organics if necessary, and recover the tiles. Let all of this settle for a winter, then plant the vines the following spring. I learned this from an article documenting the process, complete with budgetary estimates at
this link . Hopefully you will find it more specific than hearing of your need to "invest millions".
I only have about 180 vines in the ground, hoping to find out which specific species tolerate "farmer abuse" the best. Once this is determined, I plan to plant about 4 acres in a 6x8 vine spacing. I will probably shortcut the article I referred you to, and only dig shallow trenches every other row. I used a 12 inch auger to dig the planting holes, and I amended the soil in each hole with peat and sand. I am fertilizing on top by hand for now.
One person warned about birds. Maybe once they start bearing fruit you will need to, but for now, you enemy is the nertheastern antlered hoof rat, more commonly known as whitetail deer. They will eat every shoot, leaf, and generally green thing that grows from your vine plantings as soon as they appear. If you don't have a deer fence of some sort, they will never live through the summer. Even the big Finger Lakes growers have this problem (I live about 45 minutes away). The only reason they can grow without fences is because there are so many vines in the area, everyone feeds them a little nit, and no one is wiped out. Not so for you if you are an (relatively) isolated grower (no vines within a mile or two). I use 10ft T-posts with 7.5 ft deer netting available from Home Depot. The idea is not to hold them out - they can tear it donw whenever they choose - but to train them to move around the area's perimeter. If the fence goes up before there are any tender shoots (deer goodies), it should be relatively easy. If the fence goes up after they know there's food inside, they will keep tearing it down.
Now that my deer fence is up, my next project is the trellis system. I hope the vines grow enough this year to need them /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif
Good luck, and lets keep some thread alive to compare notes.