While age and gender has a definite affect on meat quality. The diet the deer has been eating, a clean shot, and good field dressing and butchering is even more important to final eat-ability. My late father-in-law once spent a day trimming meat from an older buck that was thawed in the refrigerator. It was the best meat we ever had. He removed all the white connective tissue, and even the undiluted ground meat tasted like high quality lean beef. I have never had the patience for this myself, but we sure appreciated his efforts.
