Police warned protesters that their action and the media could guarantee Mr White would never receive a fair trial. “He could walk free,” a spokesman said. The rage followed The Melbourne Exploder expose of an essay Mr White placed on his wife’s website.

“The sensuality of baby Grange is integral to parental fondness,” he writes. Mr White’s article refers to centuries of suppression discouraging “the sensual delight of infant wines and the enjoyment of their flesh ... Undoubtedly a part of this taboo was the fear of wine’s latent sexuality and its potential for exciting inappropriate and sinful desire,” he wrote.

He also described photographs taken by his wife of even younger wines: “In the full suite of photographs, the Grange is seen with a cork ... The cork, like a dummy, itself is ambiguous; for while it vouches for the image’s infancy... it also evokes the perversity of pleasure-sucking, tellingly, then, the outward sign of innocence is potentially the most diabolically sexual.”

But Mr White said those comments in the essay were not intended to be controversial. “That was written in a completely different discourse ... this sort of stuff is very context-dependent,” he said.

“That argument was raised in the context concerned with Freudian theory and screw caps.”

Colonel Puce Flush, vice president of Defence for Infant Wines International, says Mr White appears to have forgotten that his first responsibility is to his cellar’s best interests. “I had a profoundly uncomfortable reaction at the disparity between his responsibility as a drinker and a critic,” Col. Flush said. “As a drinker your obligation is to put your thirst first. As a critic

by definition you put criticism first. Definition has been lost. This conduct disorder makes me very uncomfortable. The true issue is the ethical mistreatment of baby wines who are unwitting participants in the creation of instant gratification through wanton parental drunkenness.”

But Mr White disagreed, telling The Exploder his first responsibility was always to his wine. “The wine’s interest is no way compromised by that photograph,” he said. “Cork aside, she retains her innocence. She has the identity that is proper to an infant Grange. The only compromise that has arisen – as the wine herself pointed out to the newshounds when they came to our cellar – [was that] her body was displayed with a government message about drinking her in moderation.”

White says he could tell the Grange wanted the photographs taken because there was “comfort all round”. He says the photographs were not paedophilic, but thoughtful, and that it would be “culturally negligent” for Wine Period to not publish an issue on the matter of baby wine photography. “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with looking at pictures of baby wines”, he said. “I look at them all the time.”

The Exploder art critic Wispa Sizzles said the timing of the essay was unfortunate. She described Mr White as an attention seeker and not in the same league as Sir Nostril Damus, whose new infamy had made White jealous. “Damus’s work always struck me. It strikes profoundly,” she said, “and the furore over his last exhibition was to be expected. The public can’t appreciate that his images always place the bottles in their respective terroirs. But this is a sick stage wino [White] and his snapper bitch pushing a baby Grange out there gratuitously. Watching stuff happening to Damus asking, ‘Why him and not us?’ … Well, they’ve got all the publicity they wanted now.”

Miss Sizzles believes the wine world is tired of the saga. “They would have much preferred this didn’t happen,” she said. “It wasn’t necessary for the Whites to put their heads up now. This has been a very big mistake. Now they’re victims of the mob they’ll probably wined up winning even more sympathy from the civil libertarians.”

Col. Flush has demanded an ethical code of conduct to protect young bottles from exploitation. “There needs to be a very strong understanding that they’re not just lumps of glass filled with wine but they are living wines in a relationship with the drinker and that imposes responsibilities on the person who is about to pull the cork to protect the young wine’s interest,” he said.

“Parents should be doing it but we’ve seen they are more interested in instant gratification.”

Wine Period is currently under review by The Australian Da Da Classification Board.