I made some great cantaloupe wine a few years back. I just looked at a few recipes, and came up with my own. After it was done, it was so good that I wished I had written the recipe down. I also have made muscadine, blackberry, elderberry, and pear wine, with varying results from excellent to pour it down the drain. I rarely drink the stuff, other than to taste it. People still ask me years after getting a bottle if I have any more, so that might be a good bargaining item if TSHTF.
My wife also makes jelly and pear honey when she has the time. Between the wine and jelly, we've made a few new friends, and gotten access to fishing holes and free wood with gifts of both.
That's what I've done with the cantaloupe preserves I've got going right now. I'm fixin' to put it in the jars and bath 'em in about 15 minutes. The drippin's from the spoon is MMmm good .. and jelled good.
I'm like you, don't do much but taste the wine. The man-o-the-house likes wine so he's been after me to make it. Since I have only watched my daughter and her friend make it in the past I am going to go strictly by their instructions for this first try. And if it turns to vinegar the way my daughter's first batch did I'm going to stick some good herbs in it, call it herbed wine vinegar and do that gift thing with it. Funny how folks get impressed with little things like that. Like your wife, I do enjoy doing jelly makin' and the like. And I hardly ever eat jelly myself.