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ORIGINAL: Slye

I do think some of this comes down to personal preference. I lean towards liking older wines, but I have had younger wines (inculding those I think would benefit with age) that I have really enjoyed.

I have also had wines that I have waited too long to drink -- so definitely a level of that balsamic vinegar, prune, stewed fruit flavor that I can probably tolerate in small amounts but not as the main flavor profile.

Why do I like the taste of aged wines? I think in part it is the taste -- I find good ones to be more subtle, with a lighter but complex taste profile that I find appealing. I do think a good aged wine reveals new flavors that are either hidden or overwhelmed in a younger wine. I also like the historical part of it -- this wine is from xx year -- what was I doing then; what was going on in the world then. Now that I say this I think I may not want any 2020 wine -- better to just forget the whole year.

Edit : I should add on the last, history, point. That when a wine is less pleasing taste-wise, I can still find some interest in drinking it because of the history angle. But there are always, of course, limits!

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Why do I like the taste of aged wines? I think in part it is the taste -- I find good ones to be more subtle, with a lighter but complex taste profile that I find appealing. I do think a good aged wine reveals new flavors that are either hidden or overwhelmed in a younger wine. I also like the historical part of it -- this wine is from xx year -- what was I doing then; what was going on in the world then

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if you open the early you are simply paying for an experience that is not going to happen unless you wait.

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Not all wines age beautifully by 15-20 years. It’s important that people understand it. IMO balsamic vinegar notes are not a good thing to detect in wine; it’s a combination of poor storage and/or new style that doesn’t age well. With that said, I’ve had a lot more Wow wines with older bottles than newer vintages.

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ORIGINAL: Jenise

I would posit that there's a third category in the middle, neither young nor fully mature, wherein the baby fat's long gone but the primary character of the underlying fruit still shows

You might also find with time that your preferences differ by grape

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ORIGINAL: jmcmchi

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ORIGINAL: Jenise

I would posit that there's a third category in the middle, neither young nor fully mature, wherein the baby fat's long gone but the primary character of the underlying fruit still shows

You might also find with time that your preferences differ by grape

Yes and yes

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ORIGINAL: mclancy10006

Syrah I like 5++

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ORIGINAL: galkim

great comments!
does anyone in here actually drank a 1990 left bank recently?

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do you prefer aged wines or younger wines?
 

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Call it middle age, like (warning! girl point of view!) a fit man in his late 40's to early 50's whose hair is just starting to turn gray. Of course it depends on the wine, but--as with men!--that stage is often the most interesting.

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does anyone in here actually drank a 1990 left bank recently?

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Nothing from 1990 but I've had 3 of 1989 Haut Marbuzet over the past 5 years. I've also had a number of 1986, some earlier '80s and late '70s.
The Haut Marbuzet were all excellent, maybe would have been better a couple/few years earlier. Most of the '86s have been excellent, as have some of the '70s bottles, but some of the older Bordeaux I've had gave me the impression they would have been better off consumed 5-10-15 years earlier.
All came from the cellar of a friend who bought them on release.

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I don't know your definition of recent, but about four years ago I was at a dinner where we had bottles of 1990 and 2004 Ch. Leoville Barton. Both perfectly cellared. The 1990 was absolutely lovely but very little energy. The 2004, not exactly a heralded vintage, danced around it. Another bottle of the '04 that I drank this summer was still very nice but had lost a step, so I'll be looking to finish my last bottle before the end of the year.

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ORIGINAL: jmcmchi

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ORIGINAL: Jenise

I would posit that there's a third category in the middle, neither young nor fully mature, wherein the baby fat's long gone but the primary character of the underlying fruit still shows

You might also find with time that your preferences differ by grape

Yes and yes

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ORIGINAL: BenG

Interesting discussion. From my memory of being a wine tragic In Australia, around 15 years ago after winemakers realized that 90% of their wines were drunk very soon after purchase (some would say within 24 hours), there was a push towards a drink now style. I suspect it started even earlier in the US. Techniques such as micro oxygenation were introduced so that you no longer had to wait for a wine to be at least 5 years old to show well.

Concurrently, there was a push for cleaner wines; to stamp out wine faults. The use of screw caps was probably the most noticeable change to solve this. Wine labels that had thrown decent amounts of crust in the 90s were now filtered and fined so much in order to avoid wine faults that after several years in the bottle it still wouldn't produce sediment. Quaffing labels that in the 90s might produce some interesting tertiary flavors after a few years were now pleasant with no hope of improvement.

This means if you think that sediment in wine is helpful in developing tertiary ("aged") flavors it's getting a lot harder to find modern wines that are not overly fined/filtered. I get excited on the rare occasion when I see wine throw sediment after only a handful of years in the bottle. It doesn't necessarily mean it will definitely age well, but it does give it a better chance. It used to be relatively easy to find sub-$15 wines that would age well - now it’s difficult to find sub-$50 wines that will.

I now read many tasting notes where it is declared that a wine is past it because it had lost its primary fruit. Years ago that would have made no sense as the wine was just entering its most interesting phase. Sadly, it’s now true for the vast majority of wines.

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ORIGINAL: BenG

Interesting discussion. From my memory of being a wine tragic In Australia, around 15 years ago after winemakers realized that 90% of their wines were drunk very soon after purchase (some would say within 24 hours), there was a push towards a drink now style. I suspect it started even earlier in the US. Techniques such as micro oxygenation were introduced so that you no longer had to wait for a wine to be at least 5 years old to show well.