Wine Aging

So because I am very new to wine I need to know, How do you know which wines should be left to age and how long should you leave it before drinking and how do you know which wine should be drank right away?

[Robin Garr]

How much do you want to pay for wine? Pretty much any wine under $20 and most under $30 can be drunk with enjoyment right from the store. Cellaring wine is almost a separate hobby. A rewarding one, but especially assuming you arrange some kind of cellaring system more effective than a cool room in your house, it's not a cheap one.

[David M. Bueker]

This is also another one of those "reputable merchant" issues. They can help you. Additionally, publications such as Wine Spectator (yeah, them) offer "drinking windows" with their reviews.

As Robin mentioned, good storage conditions are key to properly aging wine.

As already mentioned, it is possible to get specific and general advice on aging. But I would like to stress that it is not an exact science.

Very few people are able to successfully predict how any particular wine will develop. It will anway depend on the quality of the cork and storage conditions. Also different cultures (and individuals within those cultures) prefer wines at different stages of development.

I am not saying this to make it sound scary and difficult. It's rather to encourage you to experiment and not fret too much. By all means listen to advice from others, but don't feel you always have to follow it.

One more thought... If you ever see the opportunity to taste or buy an older wine, you should take it. Good mature wine is more expensive than the same wine when young, but it will help you discover how wine develops, and you will find out how much you like wine at different stages of maturity.

[Jenise]

Everybody's already said what needs to be said, but I'll add something: the fruitier and oakier and the cheaper the wine, the less likely it is to be ageable. Wines by American producers like Bogle and Kendall Jackson, say, are made for near term (less than three years) consumption, and they lack the extra layers of acidity and tannins desirable in wines you'd hang onto.

Back to Cellar Tracker, remember me recommending it? When people there write tasting notes about wine, they often fill in the drink-by dates. Though the information there is crowd-sourced and therefore not 100% expert-reliable--everybody has an opinion!-- looking up wines there can provide a pretty good indication of a given wine's expected lifespan.

Another thing I would stress is acid levels in wine help it age more gracefully. So often wine made in cooler climates age very well.
German Riesling, even bottles in the $20 range can often age gracefully for a decade or two pretty easily, if not longer. I also love old Muscadet, great acidity and you can purchase great one for around $20 that age very well. People often don't think of white wine when thinking of old wine, but they age too!

Lots of good advice
I'd make sure you like aged wine (and if so what types) before you start cellaring wines to age.
Beyond the drinking windows that Jenise mentions, if on CT can look at older vintages of same wine to get a clue as to whether aging is a good idea.

Steve and Dale nail it. You might not like the taste of aged wine, so it's well worth taking advantage of opportunities to taste.

And talking of taste. As a new drinker it is 100% certain that your tastes will change with time and experience. The wines you enjoy now you probably will not want to touch in five years and you'll be drinking something different. (Indeed from my own long experience one's taste changes all throughout your life.)

So, as a new drinker having heard about aged wines it is very tempting to buy a case of a wine you like with the intention of aging it for some years. I suggest you resist the urge, as the chances are that you won't want to open the wine in a few years time because your tastes have changed.