Living way east of wine-producing region (5)
I believe the answer is:
crust
'living' is the definition.
(to earn a crust is to earn a living)
'way east of wine-producing region' is the wordplay.
'way' becomes 'st'.
'east of' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'wine-producing region' becomes 'cru' (e.g. grand cru - vineyard or group of vineyards).
'st' after 'cru' is 'CRUST'.
(Other definitions for crust that I've seen before include "Bit of toast, perhaps" , "Rind" , "Hard outer coating" , "Hard outer layer" , "Tough part of twenty two down" .)