Provide surprise reception, literary, involving mulled wine - excellent (3,2,4)
I believe the answer is:
lie in wait
'provide surprise reception' is the definition.
(to lie in wait for someone is to surprise them)
'literary involving mulled wine excellent' is the wordplay.
'literary' becomes 'lit' (short for literary or literature).
'involving' is an insertion indicator.
'mulled' indicates an anagram (letters processed or mulled over).
'excellent' becomes 'ai' (resembles 'A1', old-fashioned term for excellent).
'wine' is an anagram of 'einw'.
'einw'+'ai'='einwai'
'lit' enclosing 'einwai' is 'LIE IN WAIT'.
(Other definitions for lie in wait that I've seen before include "as some bushwhackers do" , "prepared for attack!" , "Plan to attack" , "Bide time" , "hover" .)