After French wine, drink ale at first then head for spicy meal (8)
I believe the answer is:
vindaloo
'spicy meal' is the definition.
'vindaloo' can be an answer for 'meal' (I've seen this before). I am not sure about the 'spicy' bit.
'after french wine drink ale at first then head' is the wordplay.
'after' says to put letters next to each other.
'french wine' becomes 'vin' ('wine' in French).
'at first' suggests taking the first letters.
'then' says to put letters next to each other.
'head' becomes 'loo' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
The first letters of 'drink ale' is 'da'.
'vin' next to 'da' is 'vinda'.
'vinda'+'loo'='VINDALOO'
'for' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for vindaloo that I've seen before include "takeaway?" , "very spicy" , "As hot food" , "Indian food" , "Highly-spiced Indian curry" .)