January 31, 2000 issue of the Wine Spectator, the 1997 Brown Estate zinfandel received a score of 91 points. Fire In June 2000, a fire broke out at the warehouse facility where Brown's wine library and a recently bottled 1998 vintage were stored. With the exception of sixteen bottles - two that went to wine critic Robert M. Parker, Jr. for review, two that went to Christie's for auction, and twelve that the Browns had stored at home - all of their 1998 zinfandel was destroyed, as were the remaining cases of their first two vintages. The lost 1998 vintage left the Browns out of the zinfandel market for one whole year, a devastating setback that was mitigated only by the help of restaurant and retail accounts who held space on their wine lists and shelves for the next vintage of Brown zin. In order to bridge that gap, the Browns accelerated the release of their 1999 Napa Valley zinfandel, which they showed at ZAP in 2001. The previous month, in December 2000, Parker gave the Brown 1998 zinfandel a score of 90, noting that his review was "of academic interest only" since all of the wine had perished in the fire. The loss of the 1998 vintage has kept Brown Estate's Napa Valley zinfandel bottlings on a perennially early release schedule. Winery and cave construction As production grew, Brown expanded beyond the Rombauer facility. Winery construction began in summer of 2002, and by September of that year, a derelict barn was repurposed as an on-site wine production facility. Beginning in April 2004, the Brown Estate added a wine cave, blasting through a granite hillside with dynamite. Milestones In November 2010, the Browns released the world's first hashtagged wine, their 2009 Napa Valley Zinfandel. Subsequent vintages of this wine bore the #brownzin hashtag. In April 2017, Brown Downtown Napa opened on downtown Napa's First Street corridor. References External links Wineries in Napa Valley St. Helena, California 1995 establishments in California