re: 1998 Vintage Dom Perignon

You're already flirting with a 98 vintage being past its prime. Combine 21 years with it not being stored properly and I would sell or drink it ASAP, as I would be willing to bet it started declining in quality several years ago.

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Combine 21 years with it not being stored properly

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please tell me how it has not been stored properly.

You want to store it at 55° or at least without fluctuation.

I would just chill it, open, and taste. Selling it would not make anything really.

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I honestly have no idea how the 1980 bottle I have was stored for most of its life... I certainly haven't been able to keep it at 55 without any fluctuation since it was given to me.

Guess I should just open it up and see.

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Wine "storage" is something that I find gets too little and too much consideration. While that sounds contradictory, I mean it as follows:

For the average person who is going to keep a bottle of wine for a year or two before drinking, as long as you keep it away from light and don't let it get too hot, you're probably fine. You don't need a wine fridge to store that bottle you just bought from Whole Foods (they are still useful in getting the bottle to a precise serving temperature, but that's not particularly relevant to the current conversation).

But if you actually want to age wine 5, 10, 20+ years, the storage environment becomes extremely important. The difference between a wine fridge that costs a few hundred dollars versus one that costs a few thousand is all in the details. The more expensive option will keep a much more consistent temperature and humidity level and will have practically zero vibration (which is a huge problem with normal refrigerators that can wreck a wine over the aging process). So unless you're willing to make the investment, long term storage/aging isn't really feasible.

But, the silver lining is that the overwhelming majority of wines should be consumed within five years of bottling, anyway. People believing that age improves every wine forever is a myth that just won't die, apparently.