About two weeks ago I was able to buy a dozen over-ripe melons from my grocer at 10 cents each. Three were honeydews, three were cantaloupes, and the rest were a mixture of crenshaws and other assorted varieties. I found the following recipe, which I used to make one gallon of honeydew wine, one gallon of cantaloupe wine, one gallon of honeydew-cantaloupe wine, and three gallons of mixed-melon wine. The recipe reportedly works for any type melon, including canary melons, "camouflage" melons, cantaloupes, crenshaw melons, honeydews, watermelons and muskmelons.
Put the water on to boil. Meanwhile, peel and de-seed the melons and cut the flesh into chunks. Put chunks into fine nylon straining bag, tie bag closed, and put in bottom of primary. Crush the melon with your hands. When water boils, stir sugar into it and continue stirring until completely dissolved. Pour over melon, cover primary, and wait several hours for must to cool to room temperature. Add all ingredients except yeast. Check the specific gravity and add sugar (add a little sugar, stir 2-3 minutes to dissolve sugar, then check S.G. again), if required, until S.G. reaches 1.088. Recover primary and set aside. After 24 hours, add yeast and recover. Squeeze bag gently daily to aid in juice extraction. When specific gravity reaches 1.020, remove bag and allow to drip drain without squeezing, returning all drained juice to primary. Allow to settle overnight and then rack into secondary, fit airlock, and set aside. After two weeks, rack again, top up and refit airlock. When wine clears, stabilize, sweeten to taste, wait 10 days, and rack into bottles. Age 6-12 months and serve chilled. [Adapted from Terry Garey's The Joy of Home Winemaking]
My thanks to Nicole Tucker Keith for the request.
