Animal's about to spill red wine, not whiskey (8)
I believe the answer is:
reindeer
'animal's' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'about to spill red wine not whiskey' is the wordplay.
'about' becomes 're' (regarding**).
'to spill' is an anagram indicator.
'not' indicates named letters should be taken away.
'whiskey' becomes 'w' (alpha bravo charlie delta ...).
'red'+'wine'='redwine'
'redwine' with 'w' taken out is 'redine'.
'redine' anagrammed gives 'indeer'.
're'+'indeer'='REINDEER'
(Other definitions for reindeer that I've seen before include "Santa's sleigh pullers" , "Dancer, for one" , "Rudolph, say" , "Animal from 1 across" , "Eg, caribou" .)