History & Wine

The passing of Seth Gordon is a loss for The Magic City.

As a college graduate in 2008, my professional prospects were looking pretty bleak as of May of that year. The market had crashed, we were in a full-on recession, and even our professors were offering their condolences to us seniors who were to be pushed off a cliff into the abyss of unemployment in a few short days. I didn’t want to take on grad school. In fact, I was warned against it by older folks who said that it was better to get job experience than come out with grad school debt in a stalled economy. I wanted to go into politics and move to D.C, but jobs were disappearing, not becoming readily available.

I did eventually get a job in D.C. First as an unpaid Congressional intern and then years later in the lobby shop of a pharmaceutical company. I was living my dream, until it all basically unraveled due to circumstances way out of my control and way above my pay grade. Unfortunately, that meant that I had to leave D.C. and return to little ole Miami, leaving my burgeoning political career in the dust.

Over the next few years, I took a series of jobs in various industries, but ultimately landed in wine. You can read my resume to see how that developed. However, throughout all that professional wandering, there was someone in my corner during those years, cheerleading and networking for me, and for that, I will always be appreciative of Seth Gordon.

I met Seth on the advice of a friend who knew I was struggling professionally and told me, “You need to meet this guy. He knows everyone in Miami and can get you connected.”

So, I reached out cold turkey and asked Seth if we could meet for a networking coffee one day. This was how you did things 15 + years ago. It was a little intimidating, but he was nice enough to meet me for a cup at his home coffee spot at the Ritz in Coconut Grove.

Our first meeting was very introductory: “Hi, I’m a recent grad looking for networking/jobs,” and “ok, well, send me your resume, and I’ll see what I can do.”

I was used to being rejected at that point, so I really didn’t expect much afterwards. I “linked” with him on LinkedIn, and went on my way applying and applying.

Several days after our coffee and linking, Seth reached out to me to ask why our mutual connections on LinkedIn were two people who happen to be my parents. Well, I explained, they are my parents. He was shocked. “Those two people got married and had a child!?” Yes, I suppose it’s true because here I am. “Call me immediately, we need to talk,” Seth wrote back.

Over the course of our phone conversation later that day, Seth explained that he knew both of my parents separately in the 80s when they were young professionals hustling in the wild west years of the real Miami. Both of my parents were very involved in community organizations, and so was Seth. So, naturally, their paths crossed on various boards and charities. He worked very closely with my dad, who was a scrappy young attorney, on the task of organizing the campaign to bring the World’s Fair to Miami in the mid-80s (it was not successful). He knew my parents independently of each other, but never as a couple. (My parents only dated for 3 months before they married.) And he was shocked that two very different people, as they were, would ever get together, much less produce offspring (they divorced when I was 3, so he was right). We talked a long while about my parents in their younger years, and throughout the conversation, I could feel him warming up to me. He liked my parents, and now, he likes me. I had an ally.

That was the beginning of our professional friendship. And what progressed over the next decade or so was Seth reaching out to meet for a drink to check in on where I was professionally, or to offer a connection here or there. Once I went full-time into wine, the conversation shifted more to his friends around the country in the industry and what kind of projects they were working on, both in wine and writing. Seth also helped with events I was hosting as a board member for Pace Center for Girls, Miami. We needed a local celebrity to host a trivia night benefiting the school, and Seth immediately connected us with Billy Corben, who hosted our event for several years in a row with his famous humor and wit. Seth was a connector and knew that I really couldn’t do much for him, but he connected anyway. He was wealthy in relationships from his political, PR, and arts associations, and he was willing to unroll the ladder down to me. I always appreciated his time and our wine meetups. They always seemed genuine on his part.

About 6 years ago, Seth approached me with an idea. I had been writing my wine column for a couple of years already at that point, and he knew that I came from a communications/writing background. His idea? To put together a dream team of Miami’s finest professionals who care about the city and journalism, and buy one of the local papers that was for sale at the time. That dream team, according to him, included me and several other Miami celebrities, whom I was honored to be in the company of.

We had meetings and discussed what this could look like over the course of several months, but ultimately, that acquisition never happened (obviously, I’m no media mogul, yet). But what it showed me was that I had someone in my corner doing his best to elevate me and my career. Seth was a true advocate of mine, and I will never forget that.

He was also very funny and had a quirky sense of humor that he usually applied to politics and ridiculous city drama. I loved hearing the gossip from him because it was always ripe with commentary and rich backstory. He was not a typical guy in many ways, but that was what gave him his charm. We need more people like Seth who can have disarming, humorous conversations with very strong opinions about controversial topics. No one was ever offended during our chats, but I do remember quite a bit of laughter or jaw-dropping shock on my part (he knew things).

From what I had seen in more recent years, Seth was not well. The last message I sent him on Facebook messenger was in response to a post he had written in March of 2025 talking about an illness. The message still sits on “sent.” He passed last month at the age of 77. I’m not sure what was going on behind the scenes, but our regular communications stopped around 2023. I wish we had more time together. But I know he lived a very fulfilling life as one of Miami’s most connected men. The Miami Herald has published a more colorful obituary for Seth that you can read online. There was, of course, a lot of Seth’s life that happened before I was even born, but I’m glad I got to know him throughout my young adulthood.

Fly high, my friend. I hope that you will be remembered and celebrated by those whose lives you touched.