The organic and biodynamic Loacker 2018 Brunello di Montalcino Corte Pavone offers a silky presentation of dark fruit flavors that are intermingled with light shades of spice, earth and crushed flower. The wine offers lively fruit and shows good overall balance, with mid-weight texture ceding to bright acidity. This is a 22,000-bottle release.

Packaged with a black label, the organic and biodynamic 2017 Brunello di Montalcino Corte Pavone is lush and rich, but it also shows balance. The wine starts off with sweet fruit tones and lots of black cherry with spice, tar and cedarwood. There is a general softness or integration to these flavors that gives this bottle the upper edge in a challenging vintage.

Corte Pavone is a biodynamic and organic estate in Montalcino owned by the Loacker family of northern Italy (of breakfast biscuit fame for those of you who are familiar with the catchy television jingle seen throughout the 1980s and 1990s on Italian television). Their 2016 Brunello di Montalcino Corte Pavone shows a touch of natural rubber that appears before the Sangiovese fruit and the spice expected of a wine released five years after the harvest. Once the wine has had ample time to open, the fruit, spice and balsam tones come into greater focus. I'd suggest this 13,700-bottle release for near or medium-term drinking.

The Loacker Schwarhof 2015 Brunello di Montalcino Corte Pavone is an immediate and softly textured wine that is packed tight with black fruit aromas, tobacco and touches of exotic spice. This is a robust and full-bodied expression that covers the palate with thick layers of fruit intensity. The wine is fermented in Austrian and French oak casks using ambient yeasts. It then sees three years of barrel aging. The wine ends with sweet tannins and thick fiber that bodes well for a near- and medium-term drinking window. Some 8,200 bottles were released in January 2020.

Loacker's 2014 Brunello di Montalcino Corte Pavone is an open and immediate wine that makes a good first impression. The wine delivers a savory side that is most apparent on first nose. It is composed of leather, spice and even a touch of smoked meat. Dark fruit remains at the core. Like the other wines from this vintage, the mouthfeel is on the short side, but the generosity of the bouquet does much to compensate this fact. In this difficult vintage, bottle production is only 5,000 strong.