Leaders of drinking society drink vintage liquor for melancholy (8)
I believe the answer is:
doldrums
'melancholy' is the definition.
'leaders of drinking society drink vintage liquor' is the wordplay.
'leaders of' says to take the initial letters.
'drink' is an insertion indicator.
'vintage' becomes 'old' (I've seen this before).
'liquor' becomes 'rum' (rum is a kind of liquor**).
The initial letters of 'drinking society' is 'ds'.
'old'+'rum'='oldrum'
'ds' enclosing 'oldrum' is 'DOLDRUMS'.
'for' is the link.
(Other definitions for doldrums that I've seen before include "Ocean regions near equator with little or no wind" , "Belt of calm where winds from north and south come together" , "Windless zone" , "feeling of gloom" , "Depressed state - area around the Equator" .)