Dry northerly heading for Umbria, fast and swirling (9)
I believe the answer is:
turbulent
'swirling' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'dry northerly heading for umbria fast' is the wordplay.
'dry' becomes 'brut' (type of wine).
'northerly' shows that the letters should be reversed in order (in a down clue, letters go up or 'north').
'heading for' says to take the initial letters.
'fast' becomes 'lent' (Lent is a period of fasting in Christianity).
The initial letter of 'umbria' is 'u'.
'brut' written backwards gives 'turb'.
'turb'+'u'+'lent'='TURBULENT'
'and' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for turbulent that I've seen before include "Wild, unruly" , "Violently disturbed" , "rough" , "Disorderly, confused" , "raging" .)