Warren F Porter, President

Warren opened Iron Gate Cellarage in 2003 strictly as an off site wine storage facility. After a 20 year career in technology and telecommunications Warren decided that it was time to pursue a career in one of his two passions; wine or golf. After objectively analyzing his golf swing it was determined that fine wine was the path to choose. He could always learn more about wine but the golf swing was unlikely to change.

At the beginning Iron Gate was focused purely on storing private collector wines in a high security, environmentally controlled vault in Toronto. As time passed it became evident that our collector clients were in need of a number of other services that we were in a unique position to provide. We actively sought out to develop or distribute the best unique wine products and services for our growing client base. As such, in 2008 Iron Gate removed the term “Cellarage” from its brand and added “Private Wine Management” to reflect the fact that storage was now one of many quality products being offered.

Warren lives in Toronto with the lovely Remilee Niza who often assists on major cellar projects in Toronto and other cities. He has two wonderful boys aged 13 and 14 who wonder what all the fuss is about for “grape juice”.

Lorie O’Sullivan, Sommelier

Based in Toronto, Canada, Lorie is the Assistant Sommelier in the Platinum Club restaurant, located in the Air Canada Centre and is the in-house sommelier at Sommelier Service.  She is also a rotating Sommelier at the HSBC Wine Lounge, located in the Rogers Centre in Toronto and develops award-winning wine lists for restaurants like The Lakeview in Toronto.

Lorie received her Sommelier diploma through the Canandian Association of  Professional Sommeliers in 2006, where she attended classes at both Niagara and George Brown Colleges. She has also completed Wine Fundamentals I & II though the International Sommelier Guild and has earned the Wine and Spirit Education Trust Intermediate and Advanced diplomas. Lorie passed the Court of Master Sommeliers certified exam in Columbus, Ohio in June, 2008 and is now studying for her Advanced level diploma. Prior to becoming a Sommelier, Lorie has worked at a number of top Toronto restaurants such as Rain, Luce and Didier.

Born and raised in the heart of Niagara wine country, Lorie is a big fan of Ontario, Burgundy, New Zealand, Argentina and South Africa wines and looks forward to interesting wines coming out of Prince Edward County. Lorie’s favourite food and wine paring is Gevrey-Chambertin and Duck Confit. “This medium plus red wine paired with the richness of the duck is an absolute match made in heaven.”

Lorie’s primary responsibility is managing the Sommelier Service business unit with Jamie Drummond.

Geoff Whittington, Technology Development

Geoff began working with Iron Gate from day one to help develop an inventory control system uniquely designed for our client’s wine within the vault. This system has been continuously improved by Geoff over the years and is now a robust commercial inventory management platform that is now available to other commercial wine storage operations. This proprietary technology also supports SommelierService.com by advising which wines to ship our members each month.

Geoff was also responsible for analyzing the variety of home cellar management software and web based packages available and making recommendations on which systems were most suitable to our clients.

Geoff is also owner of Fireball Technology Group, a software development company located in Toronto, Canada.