Aging question

Yeah, you pretty much nailed it, depends on that batch. I've made meads that are pretty decent at 5-6 months, but boy did they end up far far better after a year.

Generally I count age from time of fermentation not bottling. I think wine makers do the same.

The other reason for this is because mead is fundamentally different than wine, in that wine is fermented once a year (other than made from kits/frozen must anyways), but mead can be started any time.

If you have a wine from 2009 from the north half of the world, you know how old it is. Same if it's from the south - but mead from 2009 could vary in age by an entire year, as such I always include the month.

So, to sort-of answer your question, when I started making mead I considered it bottling time after 4-6 months. Now that I know better from personal experience, I shoot for closer to a year. Recipes with a lot of tannin, alcohol or oak may need much longer to reach their potential.

I record and count my aging from the pitch date. I'm always sure when that is - I'm not always sure when fermentation is finished. My fermentations usually don't take more than 1-3 weeks, so we aren't talking about a lot of time.

From the pitch date, whether in bulk or in bottle, all the time is accounted for, and yes, some meads do take longer than a year.

Medsen's post made me realize I may have been unclear, I also count from pitch date.