How's Chateau Lafite Rothschild '94

[hotwine]

We had our one and only on-hand Lafite, a 1980, on 18 Sep last year, on the Wall Street Journal's wine writers' Open That Old Bottle Night. We had dragged that thing around since about '85, when I brought it back from a trip to Germany. The price tag was still on it: $56.45 at the Class VI store in Wiesbaden. I really had little hope that it was still good, especially when the cork disintegrated under the corkscrew. I had to strain it through a clean bandana into another bottle, and lost about 20% in the process. But what a surprise! It was wonderful! Full of ripe, round fruit, and verrrry mellow. And the '80 wasn't even a good year!
From what I've read, the '94 should be close to the '82 in quality, which was reported to be superb indeed. So you have a treasure. We drank ours with oak-grilled ribeyes from one of our yearling Charolais steers, with twice-baked potatoes, and grilled zucchini & mushrooms.
I don't know about serving it with beef wellington.... will leave that to others for comment. And as to storing it in your linen closet: that's probably OK, since you're talking short-term. I would lay it on its side, under some linens, where it's dark and cool and quiet.
By the way, our previous Lafite, prior to last year, had been savored in 1975, when we were courting, with chateaux briand at the Fig Tree Restaurant on San Antonio's River Walk. The wine has that kind of memories wrapped around it. So enjoy!