Having a pipeline - in other words having many batches of wines you have made means that waiting for a wine to properly age is not an issue. If you make one batch a month for 18 months then you will be able to drink from whatever batch you want even as you continue to make more. But that said, t'ej, a traditional Ethiopian mead that uses gesho (buckthorn) to add bittering notes is made to be drunk immediately. Historically, t'ej was not made commercially but was always made at home and served at family celebrations or at religious festivals. Like ale in the late middle ages in Europe, t'ej was made by women.
A basic t'ej recipe for one gallon might be (assumes you know all about sanitation and stabilization)
2.5 - 3 lbs of honey
Spring water to make 1 gallon
4 oz of enchet (gesho twigs)
Yeast (your choice)
A bucket as the primary (removing gesho from a carboy is a PITA)
Mix honey and water. (I use a blender to incorporate air into the must).
Add gesho
Traditionally, the gesho sits in the must 3 days and then is removed with some of the must which is then boiled and returned to fermenter when cooled ( think hops in brewing where the boil time might be around 10 minutes to extract flavor rather than the acids from the hops)
Pitch yeast (Traditionally, fermentation was caused by yeasts in the honey and yeast and bacteria in the gesho but you will have a more controlled fermentation if you use lab cultured yeast).
Allow gesho to sit in t'ej 2 weeks and then remove
Rack t'ej to secondary and allow to clear.
Traditionally turmeric may be added to the t'ej to make this a very bold golden color.
You may want to stabilize and back sweeten
