GENERAL COMMENTS ON THE MARILYN WINES
The grandmother of all celebrity wines is clearly Marilyn Merlot.
W. R. Tish, Nevada Beverage Analyst, January 2007
Production of this wine is limited, which allows a focus on the wine’s quality and the elegant Marilyn Monroe images on the labels. I have tasted the Marilyn Merlot a few times over the years and still have a bottle of the first release, given to me by a special wine connoisseur friend. It makes a party better when you bring a surprise like Marilyn Merlot to the table. Your friends will be happy to be introduced to something so cleaver and so good.
Fifi Chao, Orange County Business Journal, January 2007
Sex sells, and these days even porn stars make wines. But buyers seeking classic label allure need look no further than Marilyn Monroe's iconic image. Nova Wines debuted a Marilyn Merlot back in the 1980s, and the latest guises now include a youthful, fresh-and-fruity Norma Jeane merlot and a plush Velvet Collection cab-merlot blend with lip-nibbling tannins and a ``peel-and-peek'' overlay on the label that reveals Monroe in her famous nude calendar pose.
All of the Marilyn wines have become hot collectibles. Bottles from the 1980s traded at $200-$3,000 each in early August, while the 1993 Marilyn Merlot, which was $18 on release, traded at about $400. Magnums of the 2002 Velvet Collection blend went for double their $200 release price.
Bloomberg.com, September 6, 2007
“Merlot on the Upswing: Marilyn Merlot Magic
An Eye-Catching Napa Red Builds an Enthusiastic Following”
By Daniel Sogg
Credit the enduring allure of a Hollywood icon. Factor in the consumer appeal of a striking label and a catchy name. For all these reasons, Marilyn Merlot, a brand launched as little more than whimsy, has become an indisputably serious business. Culminating with the 2005s, released on Monroe's birthday, June 1, there have been 21 commercial vintages, with current annual production at about 10,000 cases.
"The labels of Marilyn are cool. The customers are looking for a souvenir. And who doesn't like Marilyn Monroe?" says Brent Trojan, director of the Napa Valley Wine Train retail shop in downtown Napa, who expects to sell about 20 cases of the Marilyn Merlot this year.
The story behind the brand's success includes a bit of Hollywood serendipity as well. Bob and Donna Holder, principal owners of Marilyn Merlot, moved to Napa in 1977 from Kansas City, Mo. He was a CPA, and she taught at St. Helena High School, but they quickly gravitated to wine.
In 1980, the Holders and a few friends started producing a barrel of Cabernet at the couple's Rutherford home. They called the wine Cannibal Sauvignon and, although it wasn't for sale, packaging stood front and center: The "brand" was dubbed "Maneater," and the bottles got a snappy cartoon label designed by Denys Cazet, one of the home winemakers.
Using purchased grapes, they produced their first homemade Merlot in 1983. One evening two years later, when the wine had been bottled, dinner conversation turned to a name for the Merlot. "We wanted something cute that fit with the Maneater brand. Donna [Denys' wife], said, 'Why not call it Marilyn Merlot?' The idea just hung there, and it really seemed like a clever name," recalls Bob Holder.
By that time, Holder also had some firsthand knowledge of the wine business. In 1980, he became a partner in a commercial venture called Manzanita Cellars, which produced Chardonnay and Cabernet from purchased grapes. Holder, who wears a neatly trimmed beard and comes across as matter-of-fact, credits the idea to take Marilyn Merlot commercial to a friend in the business, Tony Cartlidge, now a partner at Napa-based Cartlidge & Browne. "We gave a case to an auction in 1987, and Tony said, 'You ought to be selling this stuff,'" says Holder.
So they did. Another friend connected them with the attorney representing the estate of Marilyn Monroe. They eventually hammered out a licensing contract, which allowed them to use the photo reproductions on the labels and gave exclusive rights to the brand name. Sales of the first commercial vintage, the 1985, which was made with purchased bulk wine, were good. They sold out the initial 2,500 cases they'd made, and then received an order, from Japan, for 2,000 more cases of the vintage. They bought more bulk Merlot and did a second bottling from the 1985 harvest.
But the real spark came from an unlikely source, in the form of a criticism by a Los Angeles Times columnist. "He wrote, 'Can you believe this? There's a group in Napa Valley using the image of an unfortunate substance abuser to sell wine," Holder recalls. The next day, a professional photographer called asking for bottles for a shoot. A photo appeared in Life magazine first, then in other magazines and newspapers around the world. A (wine) star was born. "That column proved the old adage that any publicity is good publicity," Holder quips.
As of 1997, the Holders shifted from purchasing bulk wine to purchasing grapes. The wine is made at the Napa Wine Co., with fruit from three sources: the Yount Mill Vineyard in Yountville, the Beckstoffer Vineyard X in Oakville and the Beckstoffer Melrose Vineyard in Rutherford. Cabernet Sauvignon makes up about 15 percent of the blend; suggested retail for the 2005 is $27.
The quality of recent vintages has been good (80 to 84 points on the Wine Spectator 100-point scale). The parent company, called Nova Wines, makes other Marilyn-themed bottlings, too. There's the nouveau-style Norma Jeane A Young Merlot, made with grapes from Lodi, and The Velvet Collection, a Napa Valley Cabernet-Merlot blend whose current release, the 2004, is bottled in magnum and sells for $150.
The inaugural vintage of Marilyn Merlot is offered on the company Web site, www.marilynwines.com, for a hefty $3,800 a bottle, and the Holders say they sell a few a year at that price; a 1985 to 1996 vertical costs $8,000. These prices surprise auctioneers, who've found there's little if any secondary market for the wines. Frank Martell, international director of fine wines at Bonham & Bonham, says he has seen bottles of the 1985 selling for a few hundred dollars. "Lots of wines are worth more at retail than at auction," he explains, "and there's never any rhyme or reason to it." In this case, the paparazzi might disagree.
Wine Spectator, November 30, 2007
Marilyn Merlot started out as a whim, but has evolved into one of the most collectible of wines; prices for the multi-year collections approach those of fine Bordeaux and Burgundies. It is actually excellent Napa Valley wine…
Wine Enthusiast, March 2006
Wine bottles offer unique marketing styles. With so many competing choices, labels become a key to selling. Fine artwork, in fact, appears on many. Not to forget Marilyn Merlot as in Marilyn Monroe. That brand has been around since the mid-1980s. Its labels show sultry Miss Monroe in famous poses, and the bottles have become collector favorites. Those bottles contain “an excellent Napa Valley wine,” said Wine Enthusiast magazine in an article entitled “Labels Gone Wild” in its March 2006 edition.
Dave Nordtrand, The Salinas Californian, April 15, 2006
Speaking of Marilyn Wines, Fred Rosen, owner of Sam’s Wines and Spirits in Chicago, believes they do well in his store because of the quality. How does he know? “Our wine staff tastes every single wine before it comes in the store. We wouldn’t sell a wine like…Marilyn Merlot unless we have tasted it ourselves and know it’s good enough for our customers.”
Brooke Gowen, Beverage Industry News (BIN), May 2006
Since 1985, the Napa producer has been making a collector’s edition of the wine, which despite the gimmick is surprisingly quite tasty.
Tom Marquardt and Patrick Darr, The Wine Guys, Sun Chronicle, September 2, 2006
At first blush, you might think a wine named Marilyn Merlot might be more of a novelty item, but Nova Wines of Napa Valley has been making Monroe-themed wines for more than 20 years to critical acclaim.
Gil Kulers, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, November 26, 2006
It is nice to see someone be able to take what others would consider a gimmick, take it seriously, and actually put a decent, if not good, wine inside.
Vinography.com
The combination of celebrity connection, the punning label and a wine of at least arguably stature came together in what has proved to be an all but perfect commercial storm, prompting it to succeed where scores of velvet-flocked Elvis labels have failed. They (Marilyn Wines) beloved by both wine and celeb-curio collectors, who snap them up quickly after release.
30 Second Wine Advisor, wineloverspage.com
The Marilyn Wines..often these wines are snapped up by collectors and never drunk at all, but they are all delicious.
Info.detnews.com/wine/columns/silfven
Sex sells, and these days even porn stars make wines. But buyers seeking classic label allure need look no further than Marilyn Monroe's iconic image. Nova Wines debuted a Marilyn Merlot back in the 1980s, and the latest guises now include a youthful, fresh-and-fruity Norma Jeane merlot and a plush Velvet Collection cab-merlot blend with lip-nibbling tannins and a ``peel-and-peek'' overlay on the label that reveals Monroe in her famous nude calendar pose.
All of the Marilyn wines have become hot collectibles. Bottles from the 1980s traded at $200-$3,000 each in early August, while the 1993 Marilyn Merlot, which was $18 on release, traded at about $400. Magnums of the 2002 Velvet Collection blend went for double their $200 release price.
Elin McCoy, Bloomberg.com, Sexy Images, Wacky Names, Fine Art Help Wine Labels Stand Out
Marilyn Merlot is for those who know blondes really do have more fun.
Bill Marsano, HemisphereMagazine.com, October 2005
By far the most expensive wine is perhaps the one you'd least expect, Marilyn Merlot. The 2001 Marilyn Merlot Napa offers a simple medley of berry fruit flavors and is nowhere near the elite from this tremendous vintage. Still, the allure of the famous actress—who is featured in different poses on the label each year—has resulted in one amazing following. The 1985 Merlot sells for $3,500 a bottle, and a vertical case from 1985 to 1996 costs $7,000. The last time I checked most Napa 1985s were selling for a fraction of what Marilyn commands, which goes to show you can't judge a wine by its winery.
James Laube, The Wine Spectator, November. 30, 2003
Marilyn Merlot bottles always get attention in a wine shop. The winery's past and future has many similarities to the woman on the label. The wine itself is very good and the lady that it represents made the winery and wine what it is today. The Marilyn Merlot wines have had a successful track record with the wines going up in value every year.
thewinehaus.com, July/August 2001
“We made a successful wine first and decided to have a great name for it, which happened to be a movie star’s name,” Holder said. Says Alan Phillips… president of Monticello and winemaker for Marilyn Merlot, “I think everybody involved with this is trying to put good wine in the bottle. It’s just not a gimmick.”
Kim Marcus, The Wine Spectator, December 31, 1988