50 years of goon: How an industry staple got its start in Australia

Tom Angove was thinking outside - or maybe inside - the box when he came up with the idea to store wine in something other than a bottle.

Perhaps the winemaker from Renmark, 250km northwest of Adelaide, had drunk a couple of glasses of red.

But 50 years on, boxed wine remains one of Australia's signature contributions to the wine industry.

There isn't a market in the world that doesn't now include some form of boxed wine.

"It's literally become a global phenomenon," says Mr Angove's son, John.

Now aged 68, John Angove can't remember the exact day his dad came home with the concept in 1963 or 1964.

But he does remember his own reaction.

"I said 'dad, that's crazy. People aren't going to buy wine in a plastic bag jammed into a cardboard box.'

"But he didn't listen to me, of course."

Inspired by the ancient method of storing wine in goat skins, the elder Angove persevered and eventually got a prototype working.

In April 1965, he patented a design for a one-gallon polyethylene bladder in a corrugated cardboard case.

"The demand, the acceptance of it, was extraordinary," John Angove says.

Other inventors continued tinkering with the design, leading to the addition of the airtight plastic tap a few years later.

That remains a staple, and the Angove family has never made any money out of the original design.

The family now focuses on high-end bottles rather than cask wine, yet John Angove remains proud of his dad's ingenuity.

He's less pleased with the slang by which the invention is now known: goon bag.

"Terrible phrase," he says.