I brought back six bottles of Normandie cidre--through Heathrow--on June 25, and they never so much as looked inside the bag. It was through the x-ray and straight off to boarding.
I saw some screeners telling a guy to take a swig of a bottled drink or else to toss it back in 2003 either in Tampa's airport or in Cincinatti's; I don't remember which. At the time they were feeling up my shoes. I didn't notice them making people do the drinkitordumpit at every airport but then, it seems as if most people were already in the habit of throwing away drinks before boarding and he was just the exception.