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have a honey and sugar wine in the house, only really a dessert drink, would it be similar in taste?

I'd say so. Not very much like mead.

"TheBeerNut":3kvjg6hj wrote: Bunratty is not a real mead: it's a pyment -- honey wine.[/quote:3kvjg6hj]

I stand corrected. Out of curiosity, is the distinction between real mead and its variants analogous to the distinction purists draw between beer that conforms to Reinheitsgebot and beer that does not?

There are lots of types of meads. I think straight mead with just honey and water is usually called traditional or show mead. I got a few different meads while in the UK. Lindisfarne Mead is like a sauternes wine. Moniack Mead is lovely, really tastes like honey and is great with ice. I have another but haven't opened that yet. I don't think the Bunratty stuff is great.
There seems to be a huge variety of tastes in mead. I've heard lots of good things about melomels. It's a pity there aren't more available. Honey is a very expensive raw ingredient and mead needs to be aged for a long time. This is probably why you don't see it. I have heard there are many fine meads made in Poland so I'd love to go there and try them.

Metheglin - Mead made with herbs or spices
Melomel - Mead made with fruit
Pyment - Mead made with grape juice
Braggot - Mead made with malted grain

[url:1228ln2x]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mead[/url:1228ln2x]

"TheBeerNut":1zmlj40g wrote: AFAIK, the only commercial mead in Ireland is Rabbit's Foot from California. There's a sweet one and a dry one, and they're lovely. Last place I saw them for sale was in Lilac Wines in Fairview.[/quote:1zmlj40g]
Haven't seen it there recently, it was nice but horrendously expensive IIRC (oh hang on maybe that was the cider, can't remember now...)

The mead was €18 a bottle: good wine territory.