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Collecting Q&A: Marilyn Merlot

Peter D. Meltzer

Posted: Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Q: I have 2 bottles of Marilyn Merlot, 1985 and 1987, both kept in a climate-controlled setting. Is there a place I can contact people interested in buying these? I've heard their value together is over $6,000.

A: While these wines sell at retail from the website marilynmerlot.com for $3,800 and $2,700 respectively, there is little opportunity to sell in the secondary market. You might consider contacting trusted Internet retailers. In 2007, Frank Martell, international director of fine wines at Bonhams & Butterfields, told Wine Spectator associate editor Daniel Sogg that he had seen bottles of the 1985 selling for a few hundred dollars. "Lots of wines are worth more at retail than at auction," he explained. "There's never any rhyme or reason to it."

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