ChatterTip of the Month November 2009

Removing Stains – in particular Red Wine

Photo by Adriana Mullen

So with all of this festive eating and drinking, you know that at some point, someone is going to spill some red wine. Here are a couple of interesting remedies. If you spill red wine on your clothes, immediately pour on some white wine (love it!) – leave for about a minute and then rinse in cold water. Apparently, the white wine neutralizes the red wine. Do not rub the stain – you will spread it!

Now, if you don’t have any white wine handy, we turn once more to our good old faithful friend – vinegar. I would go for the clear white vinegar, rather than apple cider vinegar for this one. Some other options are club soda, salt or soda crystals, which when poured or sprinkled onto the stain will absorb and lift the red wine out of the cloth. Again blot, don’t rub!

The sooner one acts with a red wine stain, the better, but should you have a red wine stain that has already dried, and if the fabric will stand up to it, dip the “spotted’ material in boiling milk and then rinse well in cold water.