Left to right: Gino Santos and Henry Santos

How two Cuban immigrants crafted wine-based liquors with imports from Mexico, Spain, and Italy

In 1989, brothers Gino and Henry Santos set out to solve a challenge facing many small restaurants: the high cost and complexity of obtaining a liquor license. Drawing inspiration from their father, Cuban musician and Miami club owner Orestes Santos (who faced similar struggles after immigrating to the U.S. with his family in 1965) they created Premium Blend. Their mission: to craft wine-based spirits that would allow restaurants to serve cocktails without navigating the hurdles of traditional liquor licensing.

From Miami to the world: Premium Blend's wine-based spirits

Miami-based Premium Blend operates in the niche of wine-based liquors, a category they have helped popularize. Unlike distilled spirits, their products are fermented and maintain an alcohol content of 24 percent or less, classifying them legally as wine rather than liquor. This distinction offers restaurants a cost-effective way to expand their cocktail menus.

“The reality is that our product presents an opportunity for a small business to be able to make cocktails. Before we came along, people would try to use some Chablis, Mad Dog 20/20, or some high-alcohol wine, and they would blend it with juices and mixes to be able to duplicate, let’s say, a margarita,” says Gino. “But it still had the funk of the wine.”

The Santos brothers began by using filtered, clarified orange wine as a base, flavoring it with liquor extracts to create a product that closely mimicked the taste of spirits rather than fortified wine. When developing a tequila substitute, they improved the formula by fermenting agave and blending it with distilled agave spirits, resulting in an agave-based wine with the characteristic bite of tequila. Today, Premium Blend’s agave collection is its best-seller.

The company produces around a quarter of a million cases annually and has seen significant growth in recent years; Gino says its first 35 years were focused on education, as consumers and businesses were largely unfamiliar with the wine-based category. “Our best partner is the law,” Gino remarks. “The stronger the liquor laws, the better we do.” Premium Blend thrives in nearly 30 states, particularly in areas with stricter liquor regulations.

Offering alternatives across nearly every major liquor category, Premium Blend’s portfolio includes wine-based options such as limoncello-style aperitifs and specialty spirits like a Fireball Whiskey-inspired cinnamon spirit. The company has also expanded into the ready-to-drink (RTD) market with Aperol Spritz and margarita options, providing convenient solutions for both consumers and restaurants. Its ingredients reflect global sourcing: agave from Mexico, sangria from Spain, and its Aperol Spritz RTD from Italy.

While the company’s sales are heavily concentrated in the U.S., Gino says international interest in low-alcohol-by-volume (low-ABV) beverages is beginning to grow, “There are very smart businessmen around the world who see the interest in low-alcohol options in [the United States]. And they’ll bring some of our products into their markets and try to get it going because we’re basically a low-alcohol version of liquor. But, you know, things tend to happen here in the U.S. first and then spread to the rest of the world. The rest of the world hasn’t caught on to this craze yet, but as soon as they do, we’ll be ready to supply them.”

Vine Importers LLC, alongside RNDC, takes great pride in being a distribution partner of Premium Blend for Central and North Florida. We truly value this exceptional partnership.