By Kathryn Skelton,Staff Writer
Dan Robbins has 1,500 bottles and a goal: to drink each wine with friends, one glass at a time.

FARMINGTON – Before buying a bottle of port wine, Dan Robbins has to weigh his mortality.

It takes 25 years for a bottle to taste really good.

“I have to be careful. By the time I’m ready to drink them I might be dead,” he said.

It’s one of those little details in managing an ever-changing 1,500-bottle wine collection. He keeps the entire inventory on computer, and has a scrapbook to remember the empties.

Next to the label of a $60 1997 Rauenthaler Baiken opened at a May dinner party: “Medium-light gold. Legs. … Thick and silky but not as luscious as” some others.

Robbins described a bottle of Essence d’Autumne, a Condrieu by Yves Cuilleron made with voignier grapes, “one of the best wines I’ve ever had,” as “chewy” and tasting “like melons with dirt in it.”

After years of reading and research, the exotic descriptions, regions and histories roll easily off his tongue.

It can all sound, and look, a bit overwhelming.

He thinks that’s probably what keeps more people from getting into wine. So many names, so many choices.

Robbins, 54, was introduced to German wines by a friend in 1973. He says his collection has grown and shrunk since, depending on occupation and income. He’s been an engineer, an actor, a professional gambler, a teacher and an engineer again. He works for the Department of Transportation now in the traffic division.

A co-worker recently asked him over for a “Wine 101” talk and blind sampling with friends. Robbins said he began by putting six pinot noirs in paper bags – the covering helped eliminate preconceived ideas about origin and cost – and encouraged people to rate them by taste. (He says that’s a good way for any beginner to start at home.)

“At least each of them was somebody’s favorite,” he said. Novices were least warm to the most expensive bottle. “If they liked the cheapest value, then they won.”

Robbins said he opens a bottle of wine two or three nights a week, always with friends. Drinking alone isn’t any fun.

“Wines are for sharing, it’s a shared experience,” he said. “Sometimes a mediocre wine will taste brilliant because of the people who you have it with. Wine makes life better.”

To keep his skills up, Robbins and Elaine Eadler, a friend, test each other with a wine scent kit, Le Nez du Vin, which includes 54 tiny numbered bottles. They’re planning a long trip to New Zealand in the spring with several wine tours.

For those looking for an accompaniment at the dinner table on Thanksgiving, Robbins said he’s tried lots of different wines with turkey, going on experts’ recommendations.

Traditional: a red zinfandel, American wine for an American custom.

His pick: a pinot noir.

“Rather than roaring like a cabernet, it whispers,” he said.