Viands

Old Wines vs Young Wines
There is a myth in the wine world that wines taste better the older they are. The truth is that wines taste best when they are at their peak which is a combination of chemistry and taste and frankly most wines we drink today these days are at their peak upon bottling, particularly new world wines and most white wines. Some wines if they have the right combination of acid or tannin to preserve it for years will micro-oxidize, break down the acids while (hopefully) developing secondary flavors, changing in color and becoming more nuanced. Most of the wines we drink on a daily basis would simply lose their freshness, flavor and die a bit more as each year goes by. What's more most truly age worthy wines won't be drinkable in their youth at all. Thats the bit of chemistry. Then there is the taste component. I love (properly) aged wines, but some people like the more brash and fruit forward taste of younger wines and frankly more power to them. Be your own judge.

Developing Your Palate and Identifying Flavors

I was at a wine tasting not to long ago with a number of people downing Sauvignon Blancs from around the globe. I prefer to do tastings in silence, sniff the wines and record my notes, then when I'm done, compare notes with my fellow tasters, because as soon some one declares a flavor they taste your brain through the power of suggestion cannot avoid thinking of that smell. At this particular tasting which was raucous enough already there was one particular taster who would loudly rattle off a dozen or so flavors after taking a momentary sniff of the wine. It was clear to me that he was just picking words at random to sound profound rather than actually taking the time to smell the wine. While he was clearly a nuisance he was flat out the less experienced tasters in the group. I could see them struggling to find lavender honey or cassis in their glasses and out of shame uncomfortably agreeing with him so not to appear foolish. It was sad and more to the point it is this kind of behavior that intimidates new wine drinkers and turns them off to the passion. Not to worry, as long as you are being honest with yourself nobody will ever doubt what you detect, or don't in a wine or judge you for it. Besides, unless you've been working at it for a long time (a dedicated hobbiest or a professional), the odds are that you won't get more than primary flavors out of wine (cherries or ripe fruit say instead of slightly under-ripe black cherries and mint). Its not really that important to enjoying wine anyway. You can however train your palate pretty easily. There are a few basic steps that will help a lot:

Try, and re-try tasting things to familiarize your palate: nobody is asking you to taste dirt (nobody but Gary Vaynerchuk anyway), smell it though. Next time you're standing outside take the time to specifically smell things (flowers, the dirt, the smell of the air) and take note to what they smell like. The grocery store is great too. Smell fruits, veggies, herbs and spices just to get the hang of them.
Try to identify the over-riding flavor or smell of the wine rather than getting specific: Is the wine fruity? citric? earthy? mushroom? raisiny? etc..., then work from there. If it smells like citrus, think of different citrus fruits and see if any of them fit. Lemons? limes? oranges? see how specific you can get, with time it'll become easier. And don't ever be afraid to say "it smells like red wine".
Don't be afraid to describe wine in relationship to personal memories or mental images instead of fruit or using "wine lingo": As many a deodorant commercial has reminded us, smell is the sense most closely related to memory. So a wine may not smell like cherries, but i does smell like your grandmothers living room. I find also that people will describe the same thing in the context they are most familiar. Gary Vaynerchuk of wine library TV for example has made of semi-celebrity career describing wines in pedestrian terms, as a man who loves wine but eats more Nathan's hot dogs than fois gras (unlike say the writers at Wine Advocate) and thus has more understandable associations with those smells for the average wine drinker.
Try a wide variety of wines and wine styles: I can't stress this enough. If you like Chardonnay for example, try some from France, some from Australia and some from California. It will help you develop an understanding and vocabulary that will give you a better idea of what you like about the wine, is it the grapes flavor profile or the style.
Take your time with wine: Even if I'm just having a simple $8 bottle with dinner, I'll take the time to smell it before the meal and jot down some notes, I'll have it with the food see how that changes it can come back to it an hour later to see how its opened up. Taking the time to really smell the wine, analyze it, makes the whole experience more pleasurable.
Trust your palate: Just because some jerk in the room says the wine smells like ripe persimmon and freshly cut grass and what you smell is mangos and peaches doesn't meat he's right and your wrong.

Continuing Education Challenge:
Next time you buy a random bottle of wine at the wine store, go home and take 10 minutes to find out something about it. Figure out the region, look it up and see if it can give you some context. You'll enjoy a bottle of Aussie Shiraz a lot more I think if you find out its from Barossa, which is known for its peppery and chocolaty Shiraz, that the grape Shiraz is called Syrah in the old world and got its name from the City Shiraz or the Port of Syracuse respectively, and that its often mixed with the Grenache grape in France (called Garnacha in Spain) and Cabernet Sauvignon in Australia. You might even find out that this last harvest in Australia was so hot in Australia (15 days about 95 degrees, often over 110 degrees) that almost the whole vintage might be a bust. Just saying...