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Visiting the tasting room of Satori Cellars in Gilroy is as much like stepping into an enchanted realm as tasting its award-winning wines. As you walk through the round gate of the entrance gate next to the vineyard, music, laughter, gentle dogs and the brightest colors of the rainbow await you there.

The atmosphere is relaxed and slightly mystical, which is exactly what co-owner Sandy Moller hoped for when she designed the cabin-themed outdoor space.

“I wanted the place to be a playground for adults and children,” she told San José Spotlight. “Where people could feel the magic, the play and the creativity, and it would make them smile, just like taking a little vacation to our wonderland.”

Of the estate’s wines, nine recently won medals in the 2022 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition. Since first entering the competition in 2006, the year Satori Cellars was founded, the Santa Clara County winery has won 86 Chronicle Medals.

Passion has built a cellar

The winery began in 1993, when Tom Moller, who at the time ran a semiconductor company, bought a plum orchard, only to find the trees were diseased. After uprooting them in 1995, he waited five years to choose another crop.

“I had to plant something,” he told San José Spotlight. “I chose grapes because they are beautiful, then I started as a home winemaker and it got out of hand. My job was less and less fun and making wine was more fun, so I decided to dedicate myself full time to the creation of the cellar.

Tom has no formal training in winemaking, although he has taken viticulture classes.

“I just had friends who were experienced winemakers,” he said. “I learned from them. People ask me the secret of making wine and I tell them: “my mantra is not to ruin everything”. I’m more in a guardian position, so I keep it simple and treat the grapes properly.

The name of the winery comes from the first two letters of the names of Sandy and Tom, as well as that of their son Riley.

“Tom wanted to find a name that integrated our family,” Sandy said. “He was playing with letters and came up with ‘Satori’, which is easy to say and read. Then we discovered in Zen Buddhism that it means a moment of enlightenment that might go away, but will come back. It seemed perfect to us, a meeting between people and wine.

Although winemaking is serious business, the names and labels reflect the whimsical and mystical nature of the owners.

Harmonic Convergence 2019, a gold-winning blend of petite sirah, syrah, and zinfandel, is described as “a balanced beam of bilberry, loganberry, and dark cherry” that “still holds its footing.”

The 2019 Cabernet won a gold medal this year and is customer Linda Kobiyashi’s favorite. She has been coming to Satori since the opening of the tasting area in 2009.

“I love their wines and have drunk them all,” she said. “I come here as much as possible because I like meeting all the new people who come here and the atmosphere is great. But I don’t do all the tastings because I know I just want my cabernet.

John Wing, a tasting room employee who discovered the winery as a customer nine years ago, favors the 2019 Joyous, a bronze medal-winning blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah and Merlot.

“I wasn’t too sure about the setup the first time around,” he said. “It was outdoors, with dogs and children and all the colors of the Caribbean. When I came back a second time, I fell in love with the hospitality and the wine – I had never joined a wine club before but I joined theirs.

Wing started wanting to be on the other side of the counter, so he could serve and promote the wine to members and guests.

“Tom makes some of the best wines in Santa Clara County,” he said. “And he is dedicated to putting in the time and effort to create something exceptional.”

“Exceptional” is a good word for Satori’s wine and atmosphere.

“We hope that when people come through our portal, they will feel cleansed and enter into a new experience of fun and fellowship,” Sandy said. “I can’t tell you how many friendships have been made here, as people come to linger over the wine and have a beauty time together.”

Contact Robert Eliason at [email protected]