Australian Slang For Wine (Revealed!)

There are a handful of Australian slang terms for wine. The most common is “plonk”, meaning cheap wine—though this can also mean any cheap alcohol. Other than that, it’s likely to be called “chardy” or “champers”, and wine in a bag is called goon.

There are certainly a number of unique and handy Australian slang terms for wine, then.

They mostly refer to something very specific in wine drinking, but they can also be a very general term like “plonk”.

There’s some interesting history to some of these terms, so let’s find out more about how Australians refer to wine.

In This Article

What do Australians call wine?

Australians have a few different options for what they can call wine.

The most common and widely used slang term for wine in Australia is “plonk”.

In the past, this had a very specific meaning.

Plonk was any cheap wine, the kind you would buy in a bottle-o for a few bucks.

Today, while it certainly does still have this meaning, depending on where you are and who you’re talking to, it can just mean any cheap alcohol.

There are a few slang terms for certain kinds of wine, too.

The most common among these are “chardy” and “champers”.

“Chardy” refers, as you might have guessed, to chardonnay, one of the most popular kinds of white wine in the world, made from the grape of the same name.

However, “chardy” is pretty loosely used to mean any white wine if not any wine at all.

Another is “champers”, which refers to champagne, a sparkling white wine.

So, these two are not strictly speaking slang terms for wine in general.

But as I’m sure you know, champagne isn’t technically champagne unless it comes from a certain area of France—otherwise it’s just sparkling white wine.

So, champers is just a catch-all slang term for sparkling white wine.

Finally, one other way you might hear wine referred to in Australian slang is “goon.”

In all likelihood, you’ll hear them say “a goon of wine”.

This describes the foil bag in which boxed wine is kept in, so this is really a slang term for any boxed wine.

There are some variations of this, such as goonie bag, goon juice and goon sack.

It also spawned its own game called “goon of fortune,” which is a drinking game involving boxed wine.

Where do these terms come from, then?

Why do Australians say plonk?

One recurring theme you’ll see in the origins of these phrases is that they often come simply from Australians poking fun at the French who are so famous for their wine making.

This seems to be where the term “plonk” originates.

Though it is used to some degree across Commonwealth English today, it has its origins in Australia, as best we can tell.

It seems to have originally been a reference to the French word for white, blanc, and so it became “plonk” as a way of poking fun at the French language.

This term has taken on a rather broader meaning today, often meaning a youthful drinker, or a social gathering that isn’t very fancy.

Why do Australians say chardy?

Australians have a common tendency to simply shorten words down to make a new slang term, and that really is just about the whole story of “chardy”.

Chardonnay, as I say, is one of if not the most popular white wine in the world.

It’s drunk everywhere, and Australia is no exception.

So, outside of the fancy wine tasting circles, Australians have just, over time, shortened chardonnay to chardy.

When this happened is hard to say, since it happened in the vernacular.

Why do Australians say champers?

You might assume the story is more or less the same with “champers”.

But it’s not quite the same.

Again, we are all guilty of referring to any sparkling white wine as champagne, even if it technically isn’t.

Mostly, as you won’t be surprised to hear, “champers” refers to any sparkling white wine and not just the fancy stuff.

This term, though, actually spread to Australia from Britain. It originated in rugby clubs in the 19^th Century, and spread to Australia from there.

It was probably in widespread use in Australia, as well as other parts of the Commonwealth, by the middle of the 20^th Century.

Why do Australians say goon for wine?

Even though this is perhaps one of the most recent slang terms on this list, its origin isn’t completely clear.

Thomas Angove, in 1965, was the original inventor of boxed wine, and he was an Australian.

It’s thought that, because he invented what contained a half-gallon, or a flagon, of wine, “goon” was derived from the word “flagon”.

Goon, too, generally means cheap wine, since boxed wine is not something that wine enthusiasts can abide.

But it’s a great way to get a lot of wine for cheap! This kind of environment very often begets slang.

In any case, boxed wine itself was invented in Australia, and so they no doubt have the oldest slang term for boxed wine anywhere.

Australian slang is always pretty colorful, and this is no different when it comes to wine.

They have a varied lexicon for referring not only to wine in general, but to cheap wine, to specific kinds of wine, and to ways of storing that wine other than bottles.

We’ve compiled the most commonly used slang terms for wine still used today, and though some of them have undergone some changes over the years, they certainly still mean wine.

Australian Slang Quiz

Australian Slang Quiz (See If You Can Get a Bonza Score!)

Founder - @PollyWebster

Polly Webster is the founder of Foreign Lingo and a seasoned traveler with a decade of exploration under her belt.

Over the past 10 years, she has journeyed to numerous countries around the globe, immersing herself in diverse cultures, traditions, and languages.

Drawing from her rich experiences, Polly now writes insightful articles about travel, languages, traditions, and cultures, sharing her unique perspectives and invaluable tips with her readers.

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