Thief Escapes With Restaurant's Rarest Wines

A Virginia restaurant is reeling after thieves took a tour of the wine cellar and stole six bottles of one of the world's most rare and expensive wines. The incident at L'Auberge Provencale in Clarke County unfolded Nov. 19 at a quiet time when "the first table had just sat down," sommelier Christian Borel says, per the Winchester Star. A man and woman, posing as representatives for a picky Canadian wine collector, asked to see the wine cellar, which houses more than 350 selections, including the ultra-rare Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, which Borel describes as wine for those with the top .01% of wealth, "not the 1 percenters."

Once inside, the woman kept the sommelier distracted with questions about local wines while her accomplice slipped the expensive bottles into what appeared to be a specially tailored coat, substituting them with "pretty poor replicas," the sommelier says. The pair then abruptly left the cellar, raising suspicions. Staff quickly discovered the theft and pursued the suspects to their car, parked down the road.

Borel says he was holding on to the vehicle as the man tried to drive away. He ultimately escaped with six bottles valued at around $42,000, but not before the woman, UK citizen Natali Ray, 56, was pulled from the vehicle. She's facing charges including grand larceny and defrauding an inn, per the Washington Post. The six stolen bottles, including one valued at $24,000, are considered irreplaceable, with only three others shipped to Virginia restaurants this year, Borel says. While insurance may cover some of the loss, the sommelier says there's little hope of recovering the wine, which may already be on the black market. The search for the male suspect, seen wearing a bushy toupee, is ongoing.