More than a few times I have walked past that and removed the cover just to sit and stare. I keep showing the wife who I don't think understands. Mother nature deserves all the credit though for what went right. It might just be the light in that room but I really think this is the prettiest mead I have made.Good Lord that looks awesome! Did you use any nutrient or was this just a water honey yeast deal?
I used no sulfites to start, no energizers/nutrients, and Wyeast 4632. Stabilization was with 2 grams of sulfite and 2.4 grams of kbenz (5 gallons). The back-sweetening was done with the same homey at the same time as the stabilization - I think if I had planned better I might have stabilized, racked, then sweetened but this worked so who am I to argue.
Now, whether using stabilizers makes it a show-mead or not is a different argument but I'd say it's certainly in the spirit of the category.