Crossword Genius

Wine difficult for prisoner to drink? No (10)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

chardonnay

'wine' is the definition.
(I know that Chardonnay is a grape variety)

'for prisoner to drink? no' is the wordplay.
'for' becomes 'hard' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'prisoner' becomes 'con' (abbreviation for 'convict').
'to drink?' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'no' becomes 'nay' (archaic form 'no').
'hard' going inside 'con' is 'chardon'.
'chardon'+'nay'='CHARDONNAY'

'difficult' acts as a link.
I am not very happy about this link. It may be part of another bit of the clue.

(Other definitions for chardonnay that I've seen before include "White wine grape" , "Variety of white wine" , "drink" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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