Even people who are a long way off from the siren call of toupees and Viagra think fondly back to their childhood. This tendency can be reflective of something a little less innocent than pure nostalgia. It sometimes is a symptom of the modern world's obsession with youth and staying young and of the demonizing of the aging process.
 
Running counter to this obsession with youth is a parallel obsession with the aging of wine. In the words of the Frankenstein monster, "Young wine - baaad!  Old wine - goood!"

Even if you have plenty of experience with the past performance of a particular wine or producer, it is extraordinarily difficult to judge how a wine is going to age from tasting it. A wine may have a firm tannic structure and plenty of rich fruit in its youth, but that is not a guarantee that it will turn into something attractive and otherworldly 20 years from now.  I love old Côte-Rôtie, but there are plenty of others who would write some of those wines off as dead, dried out and "yucky". But then, what do they know.

There does seem to be an unspoken assumption in wine circles that every sophisticated taster likes older wines. This is probably not true. But the mainstream media has managed to get most people to think that they are supposed to like the taste of older wines.

The combination of alcohol and acidity (and in some cases sugar), acts as a preservative, and will prevent spoilage of a properly stored wine. But most wines are consumed within a year of the vintage. Only a small number gain from being kept for more than a few months. There is a huge difference between a wine that may survive for a long time and remain drinkable and one that actually improves with age.

My advice to readers - Do not completely fill your cellar (basement, closet, rat hole) with wines that traditionally benefit from extended cellaring and then proceed to leave them there without checking at regular intervals. You may end up with a cellar full of mature wines that you don't actually like. Try a few really old wines. Do you like them? If you do, then by all means subject your wines to a long sentence in the cellar.  But you still need to check them! (That is another reason why we encourage you to buy more than a bottle or two of any particular wine - that, and we need the money.)

Having said that, some great wines are unimpressive or unpleasant when they are young. Most very fine wines do need some bottle age to show all that they can. This may be because in their youth they are too tannic; flavors and acids may be unintegrated; or the wine may appear simple. Complexity does develop in many fine wines with a few years in the bottle. Some wines, such as Loire Valley Chenin Blancs; Rieslings from the Mosel or Nahe; Grüner Veltliner or Riesling from Austria; first growth Bordeaux and Vintage Ports, seem to last forever when they come from a good vintage. Other wines, particularly Bordeaux, go through a closed or dumb phase that can last years, only to re-emerge as something profound.

So what is the bottom line? In general, age is widely overrated in wines. A very small number of wines benefit from extended bottle maturation, and even fewer absolutely require it. However, it is those few wines, which actually do improve with age that cause people to associate age in a wine with quality and to bring some to the point of tears when tasted. My guess is that there's a heck of a lot of wine out there sitting in closets and cellars that is way past its prime and would have tasted a whole lot better had their owners drunk them in their youth. And while some people clearly do enjoy the characteristics of old wines, there are probably equal numbers who prefer wines to be a bit more youthful.