Why Australians Call Boxed Wine A 'Goon Sack'

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Australians love their goon sacks.  After all, what summer would be complete without the quintessentially Australian drinking game Goon of Fortune? Also known as "goon bags" or simply "goon," most of the rest of the world knows them as "boxed wine" or "bag-in-box wine." Boxed wine hasn't quite overcome its negative stigma in the U.S., where it is often looked down on. Its popularity among Aussies may partly be explained by the fact that this highly portable and environmentally friendly container was invented not in France or the U.S. but in The Land Down Under in the 1960s by Thomas Angove. The spigot, an airless-flow tap, was added a few years later by another Australian innovator, Charles Henry Malpas.

It is believed that "goon" comes from the word "flagon," the name for the half-gallon glass bottle that was standard for wine at the time Angove was looking to streamline his winery's production. "The flagon was a heavy, ungainly and difficult-to-dispose-of unit," John Angove, Thomas' son, said upon the goon's 50th anniversary (FoodNavigator). By contrast, a goon box is lightweight and easy to transport, even with the equivalent volume of four modern wine bottles inside. Its portability is just one of many untold truths about boxed wine.

If you thought that a bag designed to hold and efficiently transport large amounts of wine served just one purpose, you are in for a treat. Australians have designed all manner of uses for the trusty goon sack. Just remove the snap-on tap and thoroughly rinse out the bag, and you are good to go. The bag can be refilled with water for drinking at a picnic or on camping trips. Or partially fill the bag with water and freeze it to make an ice pack for a cooler.

Re-inflate the bag with air, and you have an impromptu soccer or volleyball. When tired, you can use the same bag for a pillow. With enough air-inflated goon sacks, duct tape, gumption, and a dream, you could build a goon raft to float leisurely on a lake or river. The three eponymous hosts of Brisbane's morning radio show "Stav, Abby, & Matt" managed to cross the Brisbane River in 2018 on a raft made predominantly of inflated goon sacks.