New Year without a whiskey (3)
I believe the answer is:
rye
'whiskey' is the definition.
(rye whiskey is a type of whiskey)
'new year without a' is the wordplay.
'new' indicates anagramming the letters.
'without' suggests deleting specific letters.
'year' with 'a' taken out is 'yer'.
'yer' is an anagram of 'RYE'.
(Other definitions for rye that I've seen before include "Cereal - liquor" , "Grass - whiskey" , "East Sussex resort" , "American whisky" , "(Gypsy) gent; type of bread, whiskey" .)