Making wines of superlative quality demands a good deal of discernment and often requires sacrifice.
 
Rigorous selection is employed at every stage of the wine's development. Many components, though singularly attractive and possessing lavish attributes, are not utilized in the final blends for BOND. This provides us the opportunity to create a second wine. This blend, offered under the Matriarch label, will always be evocative of its pedigree and distinct in its hillside character.
 
"Matriarch often measures up to the level of BOND and Harlan Estate itself. It is a blend of various BOND components. The ’06 is a classically structured Napa blend, fat and flashy in youth, offering complex waves of blackberry and cherry tart, black currant, cola, licorice and sweet, spicy oak. There’s a savory meatiness reminiscent of salty bacon. But the tannins are significant."
- Wine Enthusiast (review 04/2010)