New wines round about then were topical (2,3,4)

I believe the answer is:

in the news

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'topical' is the definition.
I don't know anything about this answer so I cannot judge whether this works.

'new wines round about then' is the wordplay.
'new' indicates anagramming the letters.
'round' is an insertion indicator.
'about' indicates an anagram.
'wines' with letters rearranged gives 'inews'.
'then' anagrammed gives 'nthe'.
'inews' enclosing 'nthe' is 'IN THE NEWS'.

'were' is the link.

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I've seen this clue in the Evening Standard.

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