since i assume people wearing merino wool here buy it from an athletic/sporting company

http://www.wool.com/Wearing_About-Me...of_Wicking.htm

". Merino fabrics manufactured from fibres that have not been chemically treated do not tend to wick water or only very poorly."

but then...

"If the lipids are removed by processes such as chlorination or oxidised by plasma treatment the fibre surface becomes quite hydrophilic. Merino fabrics treated in this way wick water quite well"