[ck113]

Ok, I know it's violently tangential and pretty silly, but I noticed this in the article too. I thought it was interesting because (I'm guessing) it's not a case of the author not knowing the grammatical rules you've just described, but of his not knowing the saying he's quoting.

The phrase is "no wine before its time." Not as in "before it is time", but as in "before that wine's appointed time." It was the slogan of the Paul Masson winery, though I can't find a great source for that. (Maybe this one: http://wineeconomist.com/2009/02/10/no-wine-before-its-time/)

So we do want the possessive here, not the contraction.

[jodrellblank]

That makes the phrase make a lot more sense.