Its very clear. I never racked it and that is just sediment in it from being disturbed. I will rack it next time. It tastes really good already.
any idea why honey would be leaching through cork?
I'd have thought it unlikely that it's honey percolating through the cork, more like some of the contents.
If it's coming through the cork, then that would suggest that there's pressure in there. So either it could be that the bottle is a little too full and that when corking, it's built up enough back pressure below the cork/above the liquid, that it's forced a bit that's splashed against the cork up and out. But the very presence of liquid being forced up, suggests either an ill fitting cork or one that's got enough natural faults in it, that it might be worth replacing it with another (possibly take 5 or 10 mls out the bottle as well ?). If liquid can come up through the cork, then there's a route for spoilage organisms to get into the liquid.
Or, the worst case scenario being that when racking out of the fermenter, that enough oxygen/air was picked up, that it's started to ferment a little again - if that's a possibility, then great care should be taken to check as bottle bombs are bad!
As for bottling JAO, it's a handy hint to only syphon (carefully) from the clearest part of the brew and when you think that you're getting too close to the sediment (which is a pain, as bread yeast doesn't flocculate very well and is easily brought back into suspension), then you syphon into a pop/soda bottle. That in turn, is placed into the fridge for a day or two, which usually gets the sediment to drop back out. Then once it's cleared (again) you can usually syphon the last of the cleared mead out into a bottle.
The last part that is left in the pop/soda bottle can be poured into a hydrometer sample jar, cling wrapped and re-chilled and the same process can be carried out - if you wanted to. I'm just a tight wad, who doesn't like to waste any of my hard earned brews.
The cloudiness in your bottled JAO will settle as sediment in the bottle and probably come out in the mead when it's served, causing it to have a slightly yeasty taste (or worst case, cause off flavours from autolysis).....
I just like to make sure about JAO as it's so easy to stir up the sludge, by just moving the fermenter, plus I like to rack it carefully and then de-gas it with a vacuvin pump before sealing the bottle(s).
p.s. Oh and because the bread yeast can be a pain like that, I usually move the fermenter to where it's going to sit during racking/bottling/whatever the day before, that way any sediment that is disturbed back into suspension has the chance to settle before the racking/bottling process is commenced (and yes I've had that happen a number of times, hence I like to rack first, which along with refrigeration, helps remove any sediment that I might pick up)