Beginning to distil drink in northern valley (4)
I believe the answer is:
dale
'northern valley' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'beginning to distil drink' is the wordplay.
'beginning to' says to take the initial letters.
'drink' becomes 'ale' (ale is a kind of drink**).
The initial letter of 'distil' is 'd'.
'd'+'ale'='DALE'
'in' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for dale that I've seen before include "Valley, particularly in Northern England" , "An English valley" , "Valley; Trollope's Bell and Lily" , "Valley, as in Yorkshire" , "Up hill and down . . . ." .)