Common Wine

It's a familiar story. Young bloke grows up in a small country town. Goes to university in the city. Graduates with Honours. Gets bitten by the wine bug while working part-time in hospitality. Two years later he's back at uni, studying in an entirely different discipline. Viticulture and oenology.

Wine work comes thick and fast. Cellar and winery operations. Vineyard hand. Trainee winemaker. Full-time winemaker. Vintages in four Australian States. Overseas, too. Napa Valley. St Emilion.

Simon Nankivell figures among the growing number of small-batch Tasmanian winemakers who joined the industry in recent years after they developed a passion for cool-climate wines and headed south.

Now 10 years on from completing his Bachelor of Science in Viticulture and Oenology, the bloke from Balaklava – north of Adelaide – is back out in the country once again. He's full-time winemaker at Home Hill in the Huon Valley.

Common Wine is Nankivell's side-hustle, when time and opportunity permit.

The label was brought to life in 2021 and has received strong support on the local events calendar, including the annual Tasmanian Wine Festival held each summer at the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens.

Somewhat ironically, Common Wine's focus is on less common grape varieties. Nankivell is a big fan of the aromatic early-ripening white variety Schönburger, mid-season Pinot Meunier for fresh light dry red, and late ripening (in Tasmania) Cabernet Franc for a fuller-bodied wine style.

Schönburger has become a 'go to' choice for Common Wine's Petillant. It typically partners Riesling in the creation of a fresh, dry and aromatic fizz for fun drinking. In some vintages, a skin contact single varietal wine also makes an appearance.

The latter red varieties – and occasionally Syrah – provide Common Wine with opportunities to go beyond simply adding another Tasmanian Pinot Noir to an already congested local and domestic market.

Whatever's available in the portfolio, you can bet on it being wild-fermented lo-fi, handled with a lightness of touch. Strictly no oak.

Nankivell cut his winemaking teeth as a vintage intern at Anomaly Wines in the Napa Valley (in 2017) and at Chateau Angelus in St Emilion (2018).

His understandable passion for making wines from Cabernet Franc is likely to be seldom satisfied in Tasmania. He made one from Tamar Valley fruit in 2021 but the variety is becoming as rare as hen's teeth, right across the country.

In 2025, there were just 735 tonnes of Cabernet Franc produced nationally. Close to 0% of the national crush, according to Wine Australia.

Nankivell loves the State's cool maritime climate, long ripening seasons and ancient free-draining soils that promote gradual fruit flavour development.

All good things come to those who wait. Especially for Cabernet Franc.

Common Wine is marketed direct to licensed retailers and restaurants. Current releases are often poured during Tasmania's popular Urban Wine Walks held throughout the year.

Key details:

Simon Nankivell: owner/operator

Vineyard/cellar door address:

No vineyard or cellar door. Search Common Wine on social media for tastings and events

Telephone:

N/A

Email:

simon@commonwine.com.au

Website:

N/A

Tasmanian viticulture takes place within a diverse mix of soil types and microclimates.

Climate data* for sites contributing to Common Wine highlight the wide diversity of growing conditions: Vineyards in northern Tasmania's Tamar Valley fall between MJT 17.7°C and MJT 18.4°C (or 1065 GDD to 1230 GDD). ie coolest to warmest.

Sites in southern Tasmania's Derwent Valley are generally cooler but with some continentality being experienced by vineyards around Glenora and those further up river. The data range falls somewhere between MJT 16.9°C and MJT 17.8°C (or 967 GDD to 1165 GDD). 

Vineyard sites on the Australian mainland are far warmer than those in Tasmania.

South Australia's Piccadilly Valley* (MJT 20.4°C; 1730 GDD) and Macedon Ranges* (MJT 19.9°C; 1365 GDD) in Victoria are regarded as the coolest GIs in their respective States.

*Source: My Climate View, utilising past data from the Bureau of Meteorology and the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts. Funded by the Australian Government.

Last page update: January 2026