Fermented essence of forest wine (4)
I believe the answer is:
rose
'wine' is the definition.
(rose wine is a kind of wine)
'fermented essence of forest' is the wordplay.
'fermented' is an anagram indicator.
'essence of' indicates the central letters.
The middle letters of 'forest' are 'ores'.
'ores' is an anagram of 'ROSE'.
(Other definitions for rose that I've seen before include "mounted" , "Gained altitude" , "Pink, increased" , "got out of bed" , "A flower; watering-can sprayer" .)