© AFP

Lam Kok and his wife celebrate the purchase of Château de la Riviere before the ill-fated flight

The bodies of all four passengers in flight to celebrate the purchase of a Bordeaux château have been recovered.

The body of Chinese billioniare Lam Kok, a 46-year-old tea magnate who sealed the biggest deal ever made by a Chinese national on a Bordeaux wine estate in December, has finally been recovered – two months after going missing in a helicopter crash.

French police said Wednesday a body found near a river in the Bordeaux region has been identified as Kok whose helicopter plunged into the Dordogne river, as he took a celebratory flight over his newly-acquired wine estate.

The body was found on February 14 near the accident site.

"The body was formally identified after DNA tests to be that of Lam Kok," confirmed colonel Ghislain Rety, who heads the police department in the Gironde area.

The 46-year-old tea magnate had invited the press to his new property, Château de la Rivière, on December 20 to celebrate his $41-million purchase.

He later took off on a helicopter tour over the estate – which he intended to turn into an elite tea- and wine-tasting retreat – with his 12-year-old son, his financial advisor and the château's former owner James Gregoire.

It crashed soon after taking to the air. The three other bodies have been found.

Gregoire, the previous owner and pilot of the helicopter, had purchased the château and accompanying vineyard in 2003 after the former proprietor died in an aeroplane crash.

Kok was the latest Chinese investor to acquire a vineyard in Bordeaux's Fronsac wine-producing region, close to Saint-Émilion.

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