I met someone that makes his own wine soon after I started brewing beer. My cousin raved about what he made and he was proud of it too. Sorry, but to me is was just bad wine. Not even close to the type he claimed it was. I also found out about his process and completely see why it wasn't good [IMO]. He did crush his own grapes, but I think his selection was wanting. Don't know, or remember, what he used for yeast, or how long he had it go (think it was far too short a time frame). He also didn't even take the labels off the bottles he used. :smack:
While I've not made wine, yet, I have been making mead. IMO/IME, the processes between making mead and wine are very similar. Not a total match mind you, but very similar. Both take mixing up the correct must, certain C&F at the start, and then time. It can take more than a while for some batches to really come into their own with either. Where it might be not good for drinking after a year, give it another year (or two) to age and it can become something great.
I'm not 20 years into it like Yooper, but I hope to be someday. I'm waiting to find the grapes I want to use for my first batch of wine. I'll probably not go with actual fruit (crushing/pressing them myself) but get it already done. Need to read up on that some more before buying the ingredients.
Also, I see crushing the grapes as being similar to crushing your grain. If you also grow your own grapes that would be akin to growing the grain and malting it. Basically one less step in the grape side of things to get the same ingredient level.