Not sure what the common sense is here. You should always have the choice to leave the checkpoint and go landside with your prohibited liquid. So now this author has to drink his vintage port in the baggage claim area at 11:00 in the morning? And then he makes the following statement at the end of his article:
And lo, the world shrinks, the year is off to a good start, and the terrorists lose again.
Terrorists lose? I don't see that from this story. IMHO, the terrorists once again have won when an item that is not a threat to an airplane is not permitted on the airplane.