This year the Rovinhud Wine Show, like many other events, could not take place. It is a pity for all events, but certainly for the Rovinhud Wine Show because the goal of the fair, yearly held in Timisoara, Romania, is to help disabled young people.
But the organization did a fantastic job organizing an online ‘ROVINHUD Wine Talk’ where winelovers could meet each other and share a glass of wine and their thoughts. We had to enjoy the wines in our own home, but in the company of 8 Masters of Wine and 8 other international experts who took part in the ROVINHUD Wine Talk 2020: Jancis Robinson MW, Ágnes Németh, Caroline Gilby MW, Gabriella Mészáros IW, Yiannis Karakasis MW, Imre Szakács-Orha WSET educator, Zoltán Kormos WSET educator, Elizabeth Gabay MW, Darrel Joseph, Luiz Alberto, László Bálint IW, Rod Smith MW, Előd Ádám, Dr. José Vouillamoz, Caro Maurer MW, Edward Adams MW and Richard Bampfield MW.
“Our philosophy remains the same: we will continue to select the best wineries with quality wines, 100% volunteering, social responsibility and the confidence that each of us has abilities, regardless of the disability we face. Only this time, you pick the wine to drink in front of the screen”- Zoltán Szövérdfi-Szép
About Rovinhud
So how did this all started? Zoltán Szövérdfi-Szép: “Rovinhud started in 2011 with the idea of monthly tastings in order to support the therapy of a child with autism. After building a nice community of wine enthusiasts and because in Romania we didn’t have a wine festival based on quality exhibitors and master classes, together with a group of friends we decided to organize the first wine show in Romania which selects the exhibitors and organizes master classes with international wine experts. Being active in the disability field I found it a good opportunity for showing the abilities of people with disabilities. The secret was to find the proper job for every volunteer, regardless their disability. In this way we grew like an organic vineyard J We started with 22 exhibitors, 4 master classes and 25 volunteers in 2014 and we grew to 33 exhibitors, 9 master classes and more than 50 volunteers in 2019. In total we raised 105.000 EUR for the disability field which is amazing for an organization founded by people with disabilities (www.cevadespus.ro/en).”
Impression of the Rovinhud Wine Show 2018 which I visited. 1) Interesting masterclasses and wine tastings. 2) Meeting a lot of winemakers (SERVE’s winemakers father and son Rotarescu) 3) Masterclasses by Masters of Wine Caroline Gilby and Elizabeth Gabay.
1) Rovinhud organizer Zoltán Szövérdi-Szép, Simona (WSET level 2, blind, co-president of the Association Ceva de Spus), Roxana (coordinator of Unloc, supporting living service for adults with intellectual disabilities), Aurel Rotarescu (award winning winemaker SERVE). 2) Oliver Bauer (winemaker), Martin (self-advocate, has spent more than 20 years in different orphanages and institutions for people with intellectual disabilities) and Zoltán. 3) Zoltán and Luiz Alberto (founder #winelover community)
The first Rovinhud edition, 2014
Ágnes Németh, one of the people who stood at the beginning of Rovinhud, tells us her story.
“I used to be the editor-in-chief of VinCE Magazine for 12 years, and I was the chief organizer of VinCE Budapest Wine Show. This event has become one of the most prestigious event thanks to our famous speakers. In the very first year Jancis Robinson and Marchese Piero Antinori were the main speakers, and in the following years we had several important wine people like Gaia Gaja, Gary Vaynerchuck, Steven Spurrier – just to mention a few. One of the regular guests was Zoltán Szövérdfi-Szép and he would bring a whole team of winelovers with him every year. From Temesvár (Timisoara) it was a long journey, and I remember once they rented a bus, it was such a big group.
Once he asked me to have a meeting with him, because he wanted to ask some advice on event organizing. I remember, I was very busy with my work, I did not feel like having a meeting, so I wanted to do it as quickly as possible. But when he started to speak about his dream, my feelings changed. I admired his passion and his concept of having a wine event to help the disabled people he works with was amazing.
So I explained him how I started organizing VinCE, I told him about every logistic detail, glasses, spittons, etc. He also asked me to connect him with Jancis Robinson. I was sceptic about it knowing how busy she is, but to my greatest surprise she answered quickly and said she would come to the event in Timisoara!
I was invited as well to the first event, I had a masterclass of sweet wines (including Tokaj, but we had Canadian icewine, German TBA, Austrian Ausbruch etc). Jancis was the other speaker. We were VIP guests and I was so honoured! Zoltán was very worried, he was not satisfied, he said nothing went smoothly, but in fact the organization was perfect, the venue was super, the team worked very well, everything was perfect! I enjoyed the tasting as well, there are wonderful wines in Romania!
The first edition of the RoVinHud Wine Salon, organized in 2014 by volunteers with the pro-bono participation of one of the world’s leading Masters of Wine, Mrs. Jancis Robinson, had achieved its goal: to purchase the minibus accessible to young people with disabilities from the “Ceva De Spus” (“Something to Do”) Association!
In the meantime, since 2014, Rovinhud is cherished by a lot of famous wine people: http://www.rovinhud.ro/en/speakers/ and great exhibitors:
As this year the Rovinhud Wine Show could not take place physically, no money could be raised for the disabled youngsters. When you want you are invited to donate via this link.
It is in Romanian language, but the button to donate is down on the left.
Website: www.rovinhud.ro/en
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