Briefly cook bird in wine (8)
I believe the answer is:
sauterne
'wine' is the definition.
(I know that Sauterne is a type of white wine)
'briefly cook bird in' is the wordplay.
'briefly cook' becomes 'saute' (to saute is to fry quickly).
'bird' becomes 'ern' (ern is a kind of bird).
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'saute' placed around 'ern' is 'SAUTERNE'.
(Other definitions for sauterne that I've seen before include "Sweet white wine from around Bordeaux" , "Sweet French white wine" , "Golden dessert wine, US style" , "Sweet white dessert wine" , "drink" .)