I don’t know anything about wine. Some I like, some I don’t. I’ve occasionally been known to drink it from a box and think it was pretty good.

I don’t usually like Chardonnay, though maybe I just haven’t tried a really good one. Same goes for Merlot, but generally, I’ll drink just about anything.

I went to a wine tasting with some friends last weekend at a local shop. I went to a wine festival once, but this was my first time at a tasting. I didn’t do any swirling, and I drank my samples.

We picked up a printout explaining the featured wines. The whites started normal enough with comments like “smelling of honey and exotic spices,” “dry with a creamy texture,” and “wonderful notes of orange rind, lemon blossom and buttery apples.”

Then we moved onto the reds. “Beautiful sweet raspberry, wild mountain berry … ” sounds good, until “incense, wood smoke and autumnal vegetation-like characteristics.” Yes, all in the same wine! (It was very good, but at $54.99 a bottle, I’ll never have that one again!)

Next up, a Syrah that reveals “exceptional fruit as well as notes of road tar, camphor, chocolate, blackberry liqueur and roasted meat.” (This one wasn’t great, and left an aftertaste.)

Finally, an Australian Shiraz (typically my favorite), is “purple-colored with fragrant aromas of toast, black cherry, scorched earth, pencil lead and blueberry.” (I liked this one, too. Still, $39.99 is out of my price range!)

So … we’ve got road tar, pencil lead, scorched earth and roasted meat … are these aromas something people look for in wine?

Fortunately, I couldn’t pick out those flavors!