The term is not always used in a wholly derogatory manner. It can indicate a degree of strange affection for the wine in question.
Telegraph journalist Max Davidson has equated plonk with "youth, ... excess, ... self-indulgence in times of penury. Forget grown-up wine. With plonk, the sweetest bouquet of all is the taste of a few pence saved." Today, the term can often be used to indicate that a particular social gathering is not a fancy affair. For example, if a party guest is worried about the social level of the occasion, a host might assuage his or her concerns with the phrase: "Oh, just bring a bottle of plonk." In
Willy Russell's play
Educating Rita,
working-class Rita decides she cannot attend a party to which academic Frank has invited her, since she is ashamed of the wine she has bought and feels out-of-place. When Rita reports her anxieties to Frank the following week, he castigates Rita for being too self-conscious, reassuring her: "It wouldn't have mattered if you'd walked in carrying a bottle of Spanish plonk." Another well-known usage of the word was that of Horace Rumpole, the title character of
John Mortimer's television series "
Rumpole of the Bailey" (1975–1992), who orders "bottles of plonk" with colleagues at Pomeroy's Wine Bar. ==Health concerns==