Bottoms up for former Dolphins
Dan Marino, Damon Huard are Passing Time with wine venture.
DAVIE — When they weren’t studying game film and breaking down opponents as Miami Dolphins teammates, Dan Marino and Damon Huard were busy devising their game plans for life after football.
Rifle Arm, Deep Post and Dame and Daniel were names of potential wines and wineries doodled on their notes in the quarterback room before their vision became a reality.
Marino and Huard settled on Passing Time, a Washington State-based winery, which produced its first vintage Cabernet Sauvignon in 2012, released in 2015.
And for the last five years or so, it’s been bottoms up for Marino and Huard on their new venture, which was introduced during a South Florida launch event for friends, family and former teammates on Saturday night at Hard Rock Stadium.
“It’s exciting to be here in South Florida where our whole vision and dream started all those years ago,” said Huard, who played 12 NFL seasons and won two Super Bowls with the New England Patriots after being Marino’s backup in Miami from 1997-99.
Huard says it was Marino, who first introduced him to wine from his home state while they were Dolphins teammates.
During the offseasons when Huard played for the Dolphins, he would travel home to Washington to meet with people in the industry on the eastern side of the state – which is much drier and ideal for wine making unlike rain-soaked Seattle.
They originally wanted to bring their idea to fruition much earlier, with an idea in 1997 or 1998 to buy a vineyard with former NFL quarterback Drew Bledsoe.
But with Marino’s career ending in 2000 and Huard continuing his NFL career until 2009, they held off on the idea until they finally made their first batch of wine in 2012.
“We started with 500 cases, and we actually got our grapes from the place that we didn’t buy,” Marino said with a laugh. “It’s awesome because I’ve been friends with Damon for a long time, and we’ve been through a lot of stuff together.”
Passing Time features three Cabernet Sauvignons: the flagship Horse Heaven Hills, Red Mountain and Walla Walla Valley named after three of Washington’s American Viticultural Areas.
The wines — constructed by winemaker Chris Peterson — are blended with touches of Merlot to flush the wine out, and Cabernet Franc to lift the nose.
They can be paired ideally with a hearty steak or some Italian pasta.
Or, if you’re like Marino, you’ll have it with almost anything.
“If I like drinking a certain wine, I’ll drink that with whatever I’m eating,” Marino said.
That includes delicious meatballs made by his wife, Claire, who inspired the name.
Marino and Huard also loved the football connection to their company name, too.
“We had all these crazy names, but we ended up with Passing Time, which is what we do when you’re drinking wine with family and friends,” Huard said. “But also, it’s third down in the red zone, we know it’s time to score and we both know it’s Passing Time.”
“It’s subtle, but it’s still there,” Marino added.
The company first began making roughly 450-500 cases of their wines, which sold quickly among company members and in the Washington area when released every April.
Now that production has neared 2,000 cases this year, Marino and Huard wanted to bring their wines to South Florida to share with friends, family and former teammates in the area.
“I’m very proud for the opportunity to bring our wine here,” Marino said.
“When you’re doing something like this, you want to be proud of what you’re putting in a bottle, how it tastes and what people think of it. Because of what we’ve been able to do the last five years on the West Coast, people [here] will love it, too.”