Brewing empire's leading wine opened first (9)
I believe the answer is:
premiered
'opened first' is the definition.
(opened for the first time)
'brewing empire's leading wine' is the wordplay.
'brewing' indicates anagramming the letters.
'leading' says to put letters next to each other.
'wine' becomes 'red' (red is a type of wine).
'empire' is an anagram of 'premie'.
'premie'+'red'='PREMIERED'
(Other definitions for premiered that I've seen before include "shown first" , "Revealed for the first time" , "exposed for the first time?" , "initially staged" .)