The Vampire Diaries came to an end on The CW in 2017 after eight seasons. Ian Somerhalder and Paul Wesley, who played vampire brothers Damon and Stefan Salvatore, teamed up once again, but for a different project. Now the two are revealing why they wanted to reunite for their very own liquor brand.
Nothing says friendship and family for life quite like alcohol. Ian Somerhalder and Paul Wesley are getting ready to release their own liquor brand, Brother’s Bond Bourbon, which is sort of a callback to their time on the supernatural CW series. The two spoke to People about their brand, which they’ve been working on for 10 years:
WESLEY: If we're going to have a drink, it's going to be bourbon. So we became these kind of like, pseudo bourbon snob connoisseurs. We love our bourbon. We know what we like. So that's the genesis of this and that's how this whole thing started. And so we felt like if we're going to do anything together, it has to be bourbon.SOMERHALDER: There was no defining moment. We talked about this over and over and over and the joke is, and it's kind of true, this is not like a friendship. This is like a brotherhood, it's like a marriage. We've been in it together for so long.
The two actors began portraying the Brothers Salvatore in 2009 and while Damon and Stefan had their heated moments and the obvious love triangle with Nina Dobrev’s Elena, in the end, they had a bond that could not be broken. When Stefan ended up sacrificing himself so Damon could live a long life in the series finale, that only further proved the relationship, bond and chemistry the two had, not only on screen but off as well. Paul Wesley explained how different he and Ian Somerhalder are and how well opposites attract:
We've obviously worked together for so long and our characters complemented each other on screen — we were kind of like polar opposites. And what's very interesting, is that we both bring the opposite to the table in a positive way. Ian's like the eternal optimist, eternally happy, eternally positive. And I'm like, 'Oh, this is going to go wrong. This is going to go wrong.' You can't have one without the other. Kind of like rain and sunshine.
Ian Somerhalder and Paul Wesley’s Brother’s Bond Bourbon will be available in stores and online starting May 1. There were pre-orders but they sold out pretty quick, which means it’s bound to be delicious. Make sure to get your hands on a bottle when it’s released, if you’re of legal age!
