I liked Dancing Panda Ten Year Old so much I decided to pick up a bottle of the eight year old today. Like its ten year old brother, it is bottled at 100 proof and contains Kentucky distillate. While the ten year old has a 75% corn, 15% rye and 10% barley mashbill, this bourbon has a 75% corn, 21% rye, and 4% barley mashbill. While this is not the traditional 1792 Barton mashbill, my sources tell me this distillate came from that distillery. This cost $73 as opposed to the 10 year old’s $84.

The color on this is a nice solid amber; this was probably pretty dark before they proofed it down from 125 proof. On the swirl is a nice thin film and the legs take a long time to develop; when they do some are thin and some are thick. Nice oily whiskey. Very traditional bourbon nose with some floral notes, caramel, vanilla, and hints of oak in the background. On the palate this is a flavor bomb like its ten year old brother, but the flavors are markedly different. The vanilla and caramel are there, but the dominant flavor is cherry altoids and strawberries, much like Bulleit’s strawberry yeast whiskey and some bottlings of Wild Turkey. The really nice part about the Dancing Panda eight year old is that the cherries and strawberries are not overdone and are really well balanced with the traditional bourbon notes. After sampling the next day after the whiskey has been exposed to oxygen for 24 hours, the vanilla and caramel are a little more assertive and the cherry and strawberry notes are even more balanced. Like the ten year old, Dancing Panda eight year old really drinks like a cask strength whiskey as far as flavor. On the finish, the cherry and strawberry notes fade somewhat and make way for the slightest hint of clove, some black pepper, and oak.

Of course I had to pour a dram of the ten year old to compare. The ten year old is just a hair darker in color; the nose and flavor profiles are completely different. The ten year old is far more complex and interesting, but at the end of a long week, I am really happy to have the eight year old in my glass before eating dinner. This is a solid pour, and while it is complex, it isn’t cloyingly so. Just to say, sometimes drinking whiskey for me feels like a final exam; did I really taste it, are my notes correct, etc. Dancing Panda 8 year old is none of that; it feels like an old friend showed up to laugh about the final exam. One thing is for sure; the folks behind Dancing Panda can pick really good and flavorful barrels, and the whiskey remains very flavorful even though proofed down to 100 proof.