Adventurous sort was about to drink American wine
I believe the answer is:
daredevil
'adventurous' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'was about to drink american wine' is the wordplay.
'was' becomes 'lived' (I've seen this before).
'about' is a reversal indicator.
'to drink' indicates putting letters inside.
'american' becomes 'a' (common abbreviation - e.g. in organisation names).
'wine' becomes 'red' (red wine is a kind of wine**).
'lived' backwards is 'devil'.
'a'+'red'='ared'
'devil' enclosing 'ared' is 'DAREDEVIL'.
'sort' acts as a link.
I am not very happy about this link. It may be part of another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for daredevil that I've seen before include "rash" , "No cautious type" , "Seeker after danger" , "Lived, dear like rckless adventurer" , "Stuntman" .)