Leaves, retaining what might be continental, almost, in spirit (7)
I believe the answer is:
tequila
'spirit' is the definition.
'leaves retaining what might be continental almost' is the wordplay.
'leaves' becomes 'tea' (I've seen this before).
'retaining' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'what might be continental' becomes 'quilt'.
'almost' means to remove the last letter (most of the word but not all of it).
'quilt' with its final letter taken off is 'quil'.
'tea' placed around 'quil' is 'TEQUILA'.
'in' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for tequila that I've seen before include "Mexican agave spirit" , "Mexican alcoholic drink" , "Mexican liquor made from agave" , "one in the slammer" , "Quit ale for Mexican spirit" .)