There are often 3 classes: Sweet Mead, Dry Mead, Honey Wines (including metheglin, cyser, etc). Ensure that the entry is in the correct class – most Honey Wines will require a label stating the main ingredients.
Clear Mead (Photo by Sue Lang)
Cloudy Mead (Photo by Sue Lang)
Most Mead takes at least 3 years to mature, young mead appears ‘thin’, when swirled in the glass ‘legs’ are generally not seen. The scent and flavour will also be less palatable.
Use 750 ml clear glass wine bottles with shoulders, Bordeaux style, and a good punt in the base. Fill to within about 1cm of the cork, which nearly always has to have a white or black plastic topped cork so that the judge can remove it easily and replace it. Don’t put normal wine corks into a show.
Filter your mead into a very clean bottle just before the show, with minimum exposure to air, so there is no sediment or debris. Wash the outside of the filter paper first in case there is fluff stuck to it. Coffee filter papers do a good job.