Bordeaux estate Chateau Reaut has become the first vineyard to offer a share scheme via Facebook.

Yannick Evenou, managing director of Chateau La Dominique, Chateau Fayat and Chateau Clement-Pichon, leads the 12-stong consortium that bought the Cotes de Bordeaux property from Champagne Roederer, Decanter reports.

However, the sale was completed with the aid of social networking site Facebook.

Mr Eveneou invited interested Facebook users to take out a share worth €1,500 (£1,244) in the estate. The response was positive, and 400 people now have their own stake in Chateau Reaut, equating to 165 vines and 36 bottles of finished wine each year.

As an extra touch, each of the bottles will be adorned with the owner's name on the label.

Mr Evenou told Decanter that more than 100 of the investors are locals from the Bordeaux area, including restaurant owner Daniel Cuny, but the rest are scattered all over the world. Several Burgundy negociants are also involved in the project.

He went on to explain that despite the individual allocations for shareholders, the estate will still be operating with the traditional model, adding: "They will receive a certain part of the crop, but we will also be distributing the wine through traditional methods.

"As some of our main shareholders are merchants and restaurant owners, we have good distribution channels in place."

Chateau Bellevue, also in Cotes de Bordeaux, operates a similar shareholder scheme.

A host of Bordeaux properties have changed hands recently, with many Chinese wine enthusiasts taking advantage of available sites in the region.

Yvon Mau's managing director Philippe Lequeche recently claimed that as many as a third of Bordeaux estate owners are open to offers, such is the effect of the economic downturn on profitability for smaller vineyards.