Benefit involving northern wind (5)
I believe the answer is:
snake
'wind' is the definition.
(snaking is a kind of winding)
'benefit involving northern' is the wordplay.
'benefit' becomes 'sake' (sake is a kind of benefit).
'involving' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'northern' becomes 'n' (abbreviation e.g. N. Ireland).
'sake' placed around 'n' is 'SNAKE'.
(Other definitions for snake that I've seen before include "Asp, perhaps?" , "Chinese zodiac animal" , "Move sinuously" , "Slithering reptile" , "former EC currency band" .)