Short of a French wine to serve up (5)
I believe the answer is:
under
'short of' is the definition.
(I've seen this in other clues)
'a french wine to serve up' is the wordplay.
'a french' becomes 'un' ('a' in French).
'wine' becomes 'red' (red is a type of wine).
'to serve up' says the letters should be written backwards.
'red' backwards is 'der'.
'un'+'der'='UNDER'
(Other definitions for under that I've seen before include "Sub" , "In the process of" , "Covered" , "Anaesthetised" , "Inferior" .)