Years from now, Dan and Marguerite Capp may look back and say they made history. The two Wooden Valley grapegrowers are working to bring premium wines from small Napa Valley producers to the biggest market in the world: China.

They ought to know about history. Dan Capp's great-great grandfather, David Hudson, was a man of firsts. He was a part of the first wagon train to cross the Sierra Nevadas, one of the first settlers in St. Helena and one of the first to plant a vineyard and sell his grapes. Capp said his family has been farming "one way or the other" in the Napa Valley since 1845.

Born in 1942 and raised on his family's farm in Gordon Valley, Capp remembers his grandparents' farm. "When I was growing up, there were walnut and prune orchards and very few vineyards," he said. After earning a bachelor's degree in agricultural engineering in 1970, he helped begin Franciscan Winery and planted the first vineyards there in 1972-73.

At the same time, the Capps began a partnership with Ed Brovelli Jr., growing grapes on 70 acres that became the Twin Creeks Vineyard. Later, with "sweat equity," Capp expanded the vineyard to 100 acres. "We worked hard for it. It was fortunate that I grew up as a farm boy and knew about hard work," he said. They grew cabernet sauvignon, merlot, pinot verdot, cabernet franc, malbec and Sangiovese grapes.

The Capps sold their grapes to various wineries, but were faced with a challenge in 2006-07, when the wineries' demand for Capps' grapes dropped and their grape contracts were canceled. The Capps decided to make their own wine and now sell cabernet sauvignon, merlot and barbera wines under their Interlude label.

Today, the Capps face another challenge — bringing a small group of wineries to China. Their friends, Brian and Debra Stevens of Vacaville, have connections in China and told Capp that access to good California wines is virtually impossible. "I took that as a challenge," he said.

After researching the market in China, the Capps and Stevens formed a company, California-Asia Wine Exchange LLC. The company's mission is to represent small Napa Valley wineries in China, a market dominated by several large distributors.

Marguerite Capp said, "The Chinese market is potentially the largest market for wine sales in the world. It's virtually untapped and wine is being presented by their government as a health food. The reason for that is that it is a health food, particularly in stark contrast to the clear liquor usually drunk during banquets. The French, the Australians, the Chileans, the Italians, the Spanish are all in China and the Californians are mostly under-represented. We want to help change that."

Besides Lakeside Wine Company, Cal-Asia represents Volker Eisele Family Estates, Muir-Hanna Vineyard Estates, Andretti Winery, Eagle Eye Wines and Kirkland Ranch Winery all in Napa County and Shannon Ridge Winery, in Lake County.

According to the Wine Institute in San Francisco, U.S. wine exports — 90 percent from California — passed a milestone with more than $1 billion in winery export revenues in 2008, up 6 percent from 2007.

After sending a container of wine to China, the Capps and Stevens made their first trip as Cal-Asia to China last summer. They were one of 35 businesses invited to display their goods at a July Fourth reception at the American Embassy, which was attended by 3,000 dignitaries. "We got a lot of attention and a lot of interest," Capp said. They were probably the smallest business there; others included McDonald's and Kentucky Fried Chicken (owned by PepsiCo).

The group traveled around China, test-marketed their wines, went into stores and — with their associates, Arnold and Martha Shen, who live in Beijing — met a lot of people. The Shens' connections were invaluable and introduced Capp and Stevens to a number of small distributors. "Our goal is to become a Chinese distributor of the wines," Capp said.

During the trip, Capp said he was pressed into service speaking for the Napa Valley, even though, he said, he's not a public speaker. "I'm quite happy just walking through a vineyard," he added. Those speaking engagements, he added, created a need for Capp to do research on his family, to be able to tell people where he had come from. "The people were happy to see us," Capp said, adding "The Chinese want to see the people who grow the grapes and make the wine. They are not impressed with the marketing people."