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57The tap, which had to be pierced into the bag, was prone to leaking, and consumers screamed blue murder over the wine stains on their shagpile carpets.The sight of an Australian waltzing into a local BYO restaurant brandishing a cask of wine marked a particular epoch of Australian cultural history. The humble Chateau Cardboard may have endured more than 50 years of criticism, but wine snobs just can%u2019t seem to keep this Aussie invention down. Back in the 1960s, when we happily knocked back claret out of a flagon, Thomas Angove of the South Australian wine dynasty produced the world%u2019s first wine cask. Despite initial enthusiasm, the design had a crucial fla the goon bag had%u00a0 to be secured with a peg after being opened for%u00a0pouring. Two years later, in 1967, Penfolds entered the fray with their Table Cask, designed by Geelong inventor Charles Malpas. Charles%u2019 version of this fabulous vessel came with the inclusion of a tap. This was a welcome step in the right direction, but the tap, which had to be pierced into the bag, was prone to leaking, and consumers screamed blue murder over the wine stains on their shagpile carpets. The real magic came from the e%u00a0orts of David Wynn of yet another South Australian wine dynasty. David adapted the design of an American battery-acid storage system %u2013 you guessed it: a bag in a box with a tap %u2013 and took it to the market in 1970. The rest, as they say, is booze history, and Australians embraced the %u2018Frankston Handbag%u2019 with gusto. Interestingly, Wynn marketed it not on price but on convenience, and the idea that you could come home from work and pour yourself a cold glass of riesling without opening a bottle or worrying about wastage struck a%u00a0chord. It was claimed that the wine would last for up%u00a0 to six weeks (it certainly hung around longer%u00a0than that in our house). As a bonus, it was di%u00a0icult for anyone to gauge how much they were actually drinking!Arguably the champion of cask wine is Coolabah, a wine that was initially sold in flagons but gained huge popularity as a cask wine with its iconic %u2018Where do you hide your Coolabah%u2019 ad, where a protective wine lover hid his cask of wine in various ridiculous places. There%u2019s no doubt that the humble cask led to wider enjoyment of wine in this country. At the cask%u2019s peak in the 1980s, more than half of the wine consumed in Australia came out of a box.Sales have declined over recent years as cheaper bottled wine has proven more attractive and competitive, but the humble goon, one of our many gifts to the world, keeps on keeping on. YEAR 1965DESIGNER Thomas Angove MANUFACTURER Angove Family Winemakers