To help mark the 350th anniversary of the Château Rauzan-Ségla vineyard, Karl Lagerfeld has designed the label for the 2009 vintage.

The 2009 vintage wine will feature a special colorful label highlighting the castle found in the Margaux appellation of Bordeaux, France.

Clothing company Banana Republic has teamed up with a California winery to create limited-edition holiday bottles that target the female wine sipper with hand-sketched labels of the little black dress and fancy, sweeping red frocks.

It’s the latest winery to court the female tippler with images of pretty party dresses and promises of chic, sophisticated nights out.

Banana Republic’s party dresses, rendered by the company’s creative director Simon Kneen, will be embellished on Clos du Bois’s most popular wines.

The booming Chinese mainland is now the largest importer of Bordeaux by volume, driving a jump in exports of the French wine, an industry body said.

Exports from the French winegrowing region rose 34 percent in value and 23 percent in volume between July 2010 and June 2011.

The boom was driven in part by iconic great estates, but the bulk came from little chateaux selling wines for less than 4.50 euros.

A 200-year-old vintage from Bordeaux set a new world record for the most valuable bottle of white wine Tuesday when it was sold in Britain for £75,000 ($117,000).

The bottle of 1811 Chateau dYquem was bought by French private collector Christian Vanneque, for his new restaurant in Bali, Indonesia.

The standard-sized, 75 centilitre bottle of wine was sold at London’s Ritz hotel by rare wine specialists The Antique Wine Company.

A designer has reinterpreted the concept of wine-in-a-bag for the sophisticated, female oenophile in the form of luxurious French goatskin and Swiss workmanship.

Claudia Eicke’s Weekender bag is for the wine-loving female who routinely carries a bottle of vino in addition to her lip gloss, smartphone and day planner.

Made from natural grain goatskin from France, bottles can be tucked securely in the “tunnel” portion at the bottom of the bag which were specificaly designed to be stiff to prevent the wine from budging out of place.

Robert Parker – one of the world’s most influential wine critics – is alarmed by the high price of Bordeaux wine, saying the region risks hurting itself by focusing so much on the East Asian market.

“Bordeaux is the epicenter of the greatest wines,” he said. “I hate to see the image damaged by the fact people tend to think it’s too expensive.”

“Bordeaux is focused too much on the wealthy Asian market,” Parker said. “Despite the fact that China has so many wealthy people, it’s a very dangerous game if they raise prices, because the world economy is very, very fragile.”