Mixed drinks and case of champagne drunk by phoney (9)
I believe the answer is:
coalesced
'phoney' is the definition.
Both the definition and answer are adjectives. Maybe there's a link between them I don't understand?
'mixed drinks and case of champagne drunk' is the wordplay.
'mixed' becomes 'cod' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'drinks' becomes 'ales' (ale is a kind of drink).
'and' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'case of' suggests removing the centre (outsides of).
'drunk' is an insertion indicator (inserted letters are drunk in).
'champagne' with its middle removed is 'ce'.
'ales'+'ce'='alesce'
'cod' placed around 'alesce' is 'COALESCED'.
'by' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for coalesced that I've seen before include "Came together as one" , "Mixed" .)