Two bottles of high-value wine were returned to the owners of L’Auberge Provençale months after a pair of thieves stole them from the restaurant’s wine cellar. One bottle was a prized pinot noir valued at $24,000, and the other was valued at $7,000, The Washington Post reported.
In November, L’Auberge Provençale co-owner Celeste Borel reported that two suspects disguised as event planners toured the restaurant and the cellar. While in the cellar, they stole several high-value bottles of wine, including the $24,000 pinot.
The suspects fled. One suspect, Nikola Krndija, 57, boarded a flight for Vienna and has not been found. His companion, Natali Ray, 57, was captured and will have a sentencing trial on Monday. According to The Washington Post, she’s expected to plead guilty and be sentenced on charges of grand larceny, possession of burglary tools, and defrauding a restaurant or inn.
Now, those two bottles have made their way back to the Borels. Someone who had the bottles contacted Ray’s son, who helped get the bottles to the public defender’s office, who gave them to the sheriff’s office.
It’s unclear whether the return will have an impact on Ray’s sentencing. While her attorney argued that this shows Ray’s “desire to make the victims whole,” the time away may have impacted the wines’ value.
Because they were missing, there’s no way to verify if the wines were stored in the proper conditions. “Nobody is going to pay $24,000 not knowing how the wine was kept,” Alain Borel told The Post.
Feature image courtesy L’Auberge Provençale
