Clues in meandering letter suggesting insobriety (9)

I believe the answer is:

tipsiness

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'insobriety' is the definition.
(I know that insobriety can be written as tipsiness)

'clues in meandering letter' is the wordplay.
'clues' becomes 'tips' (a tip is a hint or clue).
'meandering letter' becomes 'ess' (the letter S. I am not sure about the 'meandering' bit.).
'tips'+'in'+'ess'='TIPSINESS'

'suggesting' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for tipsiness that I've seen before include "insobriety" , "happy state" .)

I've seen this clue in The Everyman puzzle in The Observer.

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