Enigmatic sweetheart gets drunk with Ernie's other half (8)
I believe the answer is:
esoteric
'enigmatic' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'sweetheart gets drunk with ernie's other half' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'sweetheart' could be 'e' (the middle letter or heart of 'sweet') and 'e' is located in the answer.
'drunk' could be 'sot' (both can mean someone who drinks too much) and 'sot' is located in the answer.
The remaining letters 'eric' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for esoteric that I've seen before include "Privileged or confidential among coteries" , "hidden" , "Intelligible only to informed people in coteries" , "'Abstruse, arcane (8)'" , "Occult" .)