The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 5 plus 7 letter word DUTCH COURAGE
I've seen this crossword clue in The Guardian
D
U
T
C
H
C
O
U
R
A
G
E
More clues leading to the result DUTCH COURAGE
- Bottle after bottle?
- Bottle of sauce?
- Bottle of juice
- Alcoholic spirit?
- Wife, roughly as old as us, taking heart from the bottle?
- Missus, having 100 years of the Guardian, displays spirited confidence?
- Spirit conjured up by other spirits?
- Beer bottle?
- Bottle bottle?
- Alcohol-induced boldness of wife, about as old as us
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "spirited confidence?" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case spirited confidence? = dutch courage.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.