Home Topics History & Culture Oz words: cask wine

Oz words: cask wine

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CASK WINE (a plastic bag in a cardboard box) is an Australian invention from the 1960s. This in turn inspired Australians to great verbal invention.

Aussie slang very quickly came up with a string of names for cask wine starting with “Chateau Cardboard” and going on to call it a “handbag” or a “briefcase” often tied to a local place name. This gave us the Balga (Perth) or Belambi (Wollongong) or Boradmeadow (Newcastle) or Dubbo (central NSW) handbag.

Less inventive were names such as “boxie” or “box monster”. And rather grimmer was the nickname “bag of death”. Then it became a “goon” or “goon bag” or “goon sack” or just a “goonie”. One type of moselle was nicknamed “lady in the boat” because of the picture on the box. And then there’s my favourite: “vino collapso” (Aussie verbal invention at its best!)

READ MORE:

• The health of Australian slang
• What Aussies call other Aussies 
• Why we shorten barbie, footy and arvo

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