Which is Better - Young Wine or Aged?

From my brother David's Glug website where you should all be looking for wine value.

Which is Better - Young Wine or Aged? 
Wednesday, 27th August, 2014  - David Farmer 

When you watch wine judges at work you will note time and time again that younger, fresher wines receive higher scores than older wines. It is also usual in vertical tastings of famous wines to observe younger wines receiving scores as high as or higher than the venerable, classical vintages.

In long, vertical tastings covering many decades the famous classical vintages with high scores will have on either side wines with mid-level scores yet as the wines get younger the scores slowly rise with a pronounced uplift for the best of the recent vintages.

Why is this? Two possibilities I think; younger wines are agreeable as the fresh aromas and vibrant, lively, sappy, primary tastes are very appealing. For a judge what they see in the glass on that day is what they must judge and score. They may well mark down a wine that has a long future because it lacks current appeal or charm even though it may have the structure to evolve. It is worth noting here that many judges believe a wine which will age well will also be appealing when youthful and there is much truth in this view.

The second reason is that young wines have similar colours, aromas and pleasant fruity tastes and it is not so easy to split out those that are distinctively better and even harder to predict which wines have a long future. Experts may well tell me I am wrong but I have been studying the results of judging for many decades.

Which wines age well and move to a level of interest beyond the delights of the primary flavours takes two to four years to be revealed. Naturally there is more certainty in wines from notable regions which have been well studied and the wines have a long provenance. I refer here of course to wines like the classified growths of Bordeaux.

In general I think pretty well all whites are best drunk young while better reds can improve - change is a better expression - but be cautious about the long term potential.

Recently I reviewed a Winestate tasting of Shiraz here and a table of the results shows in a striking manner the influence of youth in scoring.

Circled are the top scores for the cheaper Shiraz brackets which illustrate how young wines are frequently favoured by wine judges.

I have circled the following points.

1) The top score, averaging 3.87 stars in wines selling for $10-$15 was shiraz and shiraz blends from 2012 with 12 wines tasted and 12 wines rated;
2) The top score, averaging 4 stars in wine selling for $15-$20 was shiraz from 2012 with 12 wines tasted and 12 wines rated.
3) The top score, averaging 4.08 stars in wines selling for $20-$25 was shiraz from 2012 with 10 wines tasted and 6 wines rated.

Please note the lower scores for each price division are usually for older vintages.

This tasting well illustrates the points made in this shopping guide.