Drink in plaudits, audience standing (4)
I believe the answer is:
asti
'drink' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'in plaudits audience standing' is the wordplay.
'in' says the answer is hidden in the clue.
'standing' shows that the letters should be reversed in order.
'itsa' is hidden in the letters of 'plaudits audience'.
'itsa' in reverse letter order is 'ASTI'.
(Other definitions for asti that I've seen before include "White wine named after a town in Piedmont" , "Piedmont wine city, SE of Turin" , "- spumante, It. wine" , "Sparkling drink" , "Piedmontese white wine" .)