A case involving the theft of rare French wine from a Clarke County restaurant and inn will move forward after a judge ruled Wednesday that the proceedings can transfer to circuit court.
Clarke County Judge Amy B. Tisinger said prosecutors provided “absolutely sufficient probable cause” to continue the case of Natali Ray, who is accused of trying to steal four bottles of rare wine, estimated at more than $40,000, from L’Auberge Provencale, a fine dining establishment in White Post.
Tisinger made the finding at the conclusion of a preliminary hearing in Clarke County General District Court, clearing the way for three felony charges — grand larceny, conspiracy to commit grand larceny and defrauding a hotel — against Ray to be presented to a grand jury.
Ray, a British citizen, was scheduled to appear in person Wednesday but instead appeared by video from the Northwestern Regional Adult Detention Center (NRADC) due to what court officials described as an error by the jail in transporting her to the courthouse.
Authorities say Ray and a male accomplice stole four bottles of wine produced by French vineyard Domaine de la Romanée-Conti from L’Auberge on Nov. 19. Two bottles were later recovered. L’Auberge co-owner and sommelier Christian Borel said the other two bottles that were taken are valued at between $30,000 and $40,000.
Prosecutors had indicated that they intended to have as many as six witnesses testify at the preliminary hearing, but Clarke County Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Suni Mackall called only Borel to the stand.
Borel previously explained the heist in a video message and an interview with The Winchester Star following the incident, but went into further detail while under oath. He said that on the day of the incident, he was asked to give Ray and a man a tour of the establishment’s wine cellar after they inquired about hosting a corporate event there.
“Not the weirdest sort of thing to hear,” Borel said of the request. “We have a wonderful wine cellar that’s very well regarded. It’s got about 5,500 bottles of wine.”
He said Ray was “very bubbly and very happy” and quickly took control of the conversation. The man, by contrast, “spoke very, very little.”
Ray told him she was arranging a corporate dinner for her boss at a “Canadian science company” that was expanding into the Mid-Atlantic region.
Borel granted the tour in part because business can be slow after the holiday season. “These corporate events can be very lucrative,” he testified.
He led the pair down narrow steps to the basement wine cellar. Because of the tight aisles, the three walked in close quarters.
At one point, Borel said he showed Ray a special bottle featuring a quote from former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, hoping to find common ground.
“She kept talking very, very rapidly the entire time… lots of information, lots of questions about everything that she was seeing,” he said
During that stretch, he lost sight of the man. At one point, he heard what sounded like the “clink” sound of a bottle, but dismissed it. “It’s not unusual,” he said, explaining that he often nicked the bottles due to the cellar’s narrow nature.
Moments later, the man reappeared. “At that point,” Borel said, “everything really changed.”
Ray abruptly ended the tour upon the man’s return. Borel said that she went from “super engaging” to hurried and frenetic. “It was almost a little rude, because we were sort of right in the middle of a conversation.”
As the pair headed upstairs, Borel grew uneasy. He decided that, for his “own sanity,” he should quickly check the most expensive section of the cellar before the two guests left the property.
He said he knew where the high-end bottles were stored because he had placed each one. When he knelt down to check on the section that housed the Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, he saw two screw-cap bottles with fake labels placed on top.
When he realized what he was seeing, Borel said he experienced “about five seconds of pure disbelief,” then sprinted upstairs and alerted an employee.
“I said, ‘Stop them. Stop them. They’re stealing wine,’” he testified.
Borel ran through the bar area and out toward the driveway, expecting to see a car speeding off. Instead, he spotted Ray and the man walking down the long driveway toward U.S. 340.
He described chasing them, shouting “No, no, no, absolutely not!”
Borel said the pair quickly realized they were being pursued and took off running for a vehicle parked on an overgrown access road. The car began to accelerate as Borel arrived to intervene.
“I was trying to reach over to put [the car] in park. He kind of shoved me away,” Borel testified. When the car started to move, Borel let go and got out of the way.
The man drove off. A patron attempted to follow in his own vehicle, but was accidentally rear-ended by another vehicle while in pursuit. No one was injured.
Borel managed to take photos of the fleeing vehicle’s license plate. He told The Star in November that investigators tracked the car to a rental company in New Jersey.
Borel then turned his attention to Ray, who had not made it into the car. He noted that she had a look of “absolute disbelief” on her face at being left behind.
Borel said Ray provided a number of explanations for her involvement in the alleged heist, including that the man coerced her into committing the act and that she was being held against her will.
Two bottles were later found in the grass. Borel confirmed that the man drove away with the other two Domaine de la Romanée-Conti bottles.
In December, the Clarke County Sheriff’s Office identified the alleged male accomplice as Nikola Krndija, a Serbian national believed to have left the United States the day after the incident on a flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport to Vienna, Austria.
Sheriff Travis Sumption in a phone call Wednesday declined to provide an update on the investigation into Krndija. He told The Star in December that investigators were “working hard on trying to locate [Krndija] and see if we can bring him to justice.”
Ray is being held without bond at NRADC. If the grand jury returns indictments against her, she is scheduled to appear in Clarke County Circuit Court on April 20.
Dining and Cooking