We had a birthday party yesterday for my 7 year old. Almost 25 kids and at least as many adults. While there were a lot of juice boxes consumed, we also had plenty of beer and wine. I wasn't sure what to put out wine-wise and decided that a Merlot would be pleasing enough to red wine drinkers. Trouble is, the only Merlot I have bottled is almost gone and was one of my early efforts. I didn't want to serve it. So I bought a few bottles of Merlot to put out. Same struggle with white wine, and I decided that a blend would be a good all around choice (I have no white blends, so went commercial again). Pretty much all the adults knew I make wine and about half of them had sampled my work. Those that hadn't tried it wanted to, and those that had were disappointed to see commercial wines out. When the first few bottles were emptied, I went down to the cellar and brought up some of mine - A Red Mountain Cab, Super Tuscan, Aussie Chard and a Red blend. A little while later, I had stopped and asked one of my neighbors if she had a chance to refill with the Cabernet. She said "yes, and its really good, but I was hoping to try some of the stuff you made".
That brought out a couple others who didn't realize they were drinking my homemade wine - all good reviews. And when the people who have tried my wine before figured out I had brought out the homemade stuff, they finished their beers and switched to wine.
The point of my long-winded response is that, yes, you can make very good wine at home with kits. I have done a few now that I'd put up against $20 commercial wines. And while I'm my biggest critic and think I still have much to learn and improve on, the response seems to be very positive from people. With the exception of my first few batches, just about everything I've made would be at least as good as a $12 bottle from the store. Many I'd say are $15+. And as I said before, I have a few (maybe a handful) that I'd put up against $20 bottles. They need time to get to that point, but they get there.
