Scotland pair sell out six whisky releases in 24 months

Pierre Schoeman is a Scotland prop with 50 caps. Duhan van der Merwe is Scotland's record try scorer, with 35 tries in 52 Tests, one clear of Darcy Graham.

The cap and try counts have been verified by the Gazette. The pair also own a whisky company in Edinburgh.

Hirundine Whisky independently bottles Speyside single malt under Against The Grain Spirits, which the two players own with operator David Whiteford. There is no licensing deal and no agency running it.

The company has put out six releases in 24 months and says all six sold out, the first within minutes.

The range, on the company's account, runs from a perpetual £75 twelve-year-old launched on Halloween to a 370-bottle Legacy Edition with every bottle hand-signed, and February's run of fifteen bottles of a 38-year-old at £2,500 each.

The press kit lists stockists including The Balmoral, Gleneagles Townhouse, The Kitchin, the Edinburgh Castle whisky shop and Historic Environment Scotland's Stòr online shop. It also reports a two-year partnership with Edinburgh Rugby.

The name is the biography. Hirundine is the swallow that semi-migrates between South Africa and the UK.

"It's not a rugby whisky," Schoeman says. "It's two migrations, told in Speyside malt."

The two men roomed together as under-18 players in 2012, Schoeman from Nelspruit and van der Merwe from George. Both ended up in Edinburgh, in Scotland jerseys and on British & Irish Lions tours — van der Merwe in 2021 and 2025, Schoeman in 2025.

The timing is the point. A Rugby Players' Association survey of retired players found 62% experiencing some form of mental health issue, nearly half in financial difficulty within the first five years, and 95% needing a second career.

Van der Merwe has already seen how fast the ground moves. His club, Worcester Warriors, collapsed beneath him mid-contract in 2022, and injuries cost him nine months and, for the first time, his automatic Scotland place.

He re-signed with Edinburgh through the 2027 World Cup. "This club and city are my home," he said at the time.

The families are in the business rather than adjacent to it: Nika van der Merwe and Charissa Schoeman lead brand and community. An 18-year-old and a 21-year-old release are due later this year.

For any founder, the interesting part is not the whisky, it is the constraint. Small hand-signed batches sold in drops are one of the few models that can be shipped around a Test calendar by owners who cannot be in the room every week — and because nobody has licensed a name here, the work does not go away when the fixtures start.

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