Most of bottle satisfied special connoisseurs (8)

I believe the answer is:

gourmets

'connoisseurs' is the definition.

'most of bottle satisfied special' is the wordplay.
'most of' means to remove the last letter.
'bottle' becomes 'gourd' (bottle gourd).
'satisfied' becomes 'met' ('meet' can be a synonym of 'satisfy').
'special' becomes 's' (common abbreviation as in Special Air Service).
'gourd' with its last letter taken away is 'gour'.
'gour'+'met'+'s'='GOURMETS'

(Another definition for gourmets that I've seen is " Germs out to get foodies".)

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.

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