China’s seemingly unquenchable thirst for wine has ousted America as Bordeaux’s number one client outside Europe, latest figures showed Friday.

With overall exports down a large 23 percent in 2009, vintners are now looking to the East to drain their cellars.

“China has become our first client outside the European Union,” said Alain Vironneau, president of the CIVB, Bordeaux’s wine trade body, in a press conference, hailing both Hong Kong and China as “dynamic”.

China’s buying power comes at a particularly opportune moment as France’s leading wine region struggles to survive the economic crisis.

In the sun-drenched south of France, the world’s largest vineyard has launched a new, simplified brand called “Pays d’Oc”, creating the number one French wine export to compete against New World brands.

Languedoc-Roussillon covers 35 percent (or 260,200 hectares) of all French vineyards, making it the biggest producer worldwide.

As of the 2009 vintage, soon to hit store shelves, one-third of that production or 760 million bottles of wine will be sold by vintage and grape variety under the Pays d’Oc brand.

This will make them the world’s fifth largest exporter of varietal wine. And with 33 grape varieties in production in the region, the market potential is impressive.

LVMH has bought a 50% stake in St-Emilion’s Château Cheval Blanc from its billionaire chairman and controlling shareholder, Bernard Arnault.

However financial terms were not disclosed in the release, which pointedly failed to mention that LVMH was acquiring the Bordeaux wine from Arnault.

Arnault, reputedly France’s richest man, bought Cheval-Blanc with Belgian businessman Albert Frère in 1998 for a reported €155m.

One of the great names in wine-making, Domaines Barons de Rothschild, said Sunday it plans to develop a vineyard in China to take advantage of growing interest in wine here.

Chateau Lafite has a very high reputation on China and has partnered with CITIC, China’s largest state-owned investment company on 62 acres of vines on a peninsula in eastern China’s Shandong province.

“I am very pleased to develop a vineyard in a country where the interest in fine wines is increasing every year.”