Wine That Lights Up When It’s Gone Bad

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WWe may not be capable of glowing ourselves, but humans have harnessed bioluminescence for all sorts of practical purposes: medical imaging, genetic research, and even experimental cancer treatments. Soon we may be able to add another: detecting wine bottles at risk of spoiling.

Acetic acid, the chemical compound that gives vinegar its pungent taste and aroma, is a natural byproduct of the fermentation process. If acetic acid levels get too high, fermentation stops, resulting in a truly terrible vintage.

Unfortunately, current tests for acetic acid concentration, such as liquid chromatography, are slow, expensive, and impractical. Now, a team of researchers led by Yael Helman of the Hebrew University of Israel has developed a smart early warning system for high levels of acetic acid. They published their method in Microbial biotechnology.

Read more: »The neuroscience of wine»

The team genetically engineered bacteria to express the firefly luciferase enzyme in the presence of acetic acid. When acetic acid is present, luciferase is produced, and boom, let there be light. This living biosensor was found to be sensitive enough to allow precise measurement of acetic acid levels without sampling the liquid itself. Surprisingly, it can even detect acetic acid vapors that tend to travel up the neck of the bottle, something sophisticated devices like electronic noses struggle with.

“This system allows us to detect acetic acid in real time, without complicated equipment or sample processing,” Helman explained in a statement.

And it’s not just for wine. This new method could be adapted to other industries using fermentation, including biofuel production, etc. “This opens the door to affordable, on-site monitoring of fermentation quality and, in the future, could even support medical diagnostics based on volatile biomarkers,” Helman added.

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Main image: alia.kuriova / Shutterstock

• Jake Currie

  Published on January 27, 2026

  Jake Currie is a writer based in Brooklyn, New York.