Comment by micr0bi0l0gist

Thank you for pointing this out! I added the following correction and footnote to my piece. I tried to be as rigorous as possible but am definitely better-versed in biology than French history. "This finding was great news for Napoleon III<2>. The French were losing money, and perhaps more alarmingly, their reputation, exporting wine to the British – the wine would “spontaneously” go bad during shipping." Footnote: "<2> Author correction 7/28/26: Changed from “Napoleon” to “Napoleon III.” A commenter on another site correctly pointed out that Napoleon I was exiled before Pasteur was born. According to the Pasteur Institute, “in 1863, Napoleon III asked [Pasteur] to study diseases in wine.”"