What is the meaning of goon in Australia?
The meaning of goon in Australia depends on interpretation. It either applies to all boxed wine, or just the really cheap stuff sold by the likes of Sunnyvale, Coolabah and Stanley. People sometimes drink goon straight from the silver plastic bladder inside the box – aka the goon bag or goon sack.
Australia has some of the best wines in the world. And one of the best reasons to visit Australia is the chance to take tasting tours of the wine regions. That might mean bold shirazes in the McLaren Vale, Italian varietals in the King Valley, semillons in the Hunter Valley or adventures in underrated Australian wine regions.
But not all Australian wine is quite so good. Some of, alas, is pretty awful, selling on volume and price. Welcome to the wonderful world of boxed wine. Or, as Australian slang would have it, goon.
Meaning of goon in Australia
The meaning of goon in Australia depends somewhat on interpretation.
For some, goon is any boxed wine.
For others it’s the cheap and nasty stuff sold in bulk, drunk for the sole purpose of getting as drunk as possible, as cheaply as possible.
No-one really knows where the name goon came from. One explanation is that it’s a derivation of “flagon”, another is that a goon is what the cheap wine makes you act like.
Boxed wine in Australia
Boxed wine (often called cask wine) sells in larger quantities than bottles.
Some are in one litre packages, others two or three litres. But proper goon comes in a four litre box. The wine itself is inside a plastic bladder, usually coated in reflective silver foil. There’s a dispenser attached to the bag, which pokes through the cardboard box surrounding the bag. The plug or dial on this dispenser (or pourer) can be turned to allow the wine out.
The plastic bladder containing the boxed wine is often called the goon bag or goon sack. It is not unknown for the box and glasses to be dispensed with, and the goon to be drunk straight out of the bag. Amongst backpackers travelling up the East Coast in popular spots such as Byron Bay, Hervey Bay and Airlie Beach, drinking straight from the goon bag is very common.
Where to buy goon in Australia
Bottle shops such as Liquorland and BWS sell boxed wine – often in the big refrigerated sections. Sunnyvale, Coolabah and Stanley are particularly notorious goon brands, but respectable winemakers such as De Bortoli and Yalumba also make boxed wines.
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