Serving red wine? Just accept the inevitable! At some point in the evening, you or one of your guests is going to spill their wine, drip on the carpet while refilling a glass, or leave a ring on your white tablecloth. Relax! Just because it's bound to happen doesn't mean that all our good clothes will be ruined. Here's what to do:
1. Blot Up Excess Wine - Use a clean dishtowel or rag to blot up the excess wine. Don't rub or wipe, since this will just press the wine further into the fabric.
2. Sprinkle with Salt - Sprinkle salt over the spill until you can't see the stain anymore. Let the salt dry and then scrape it off before rinsing and washing the garment.
3. Rinse the Stain - When the salt is dry, rinse the stain with club soda or a mix of equal parts dishwashing soap and hydrogen peroxide. If the stain is on a carpet, blot the stain using a sponge. Hydrogen peroxide can be a bleaching agent, so only use it on light colored fabrics or test it on an inside corner of the garment before using.
We've also heard that immediately rinsing a red wine stain with white wine will prevent the red wine from setting in the fabric!
Do you have any sure-fire methods for getting wine stains out of clothes?
Related: How to Get Grease Stains Out of Clothes
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i successfully got a bordeaux stain out of white curtains with oxy clean! i let the stain dry (while the party went on ... too much trouble to get a ladder to take them down!). took down the curtains and laid the stained part over an old towel. Made a concentration of 3-4 heaping tablespoons of oxyclean dissolved in about one cup of warm water, and spooned it over the stain. put a heavy pyrex over the stain (so the solution wouldn't dry out. reapplied the mixture every few hours ... the stain was completely gone by evening! i will say, though, when i first put the solution on the wine, it turned a beastly blue-red, and i thought i was scr*wed and had set it in. nope! good luck!
I had an entire glass of red wine spill on a white linen napkin (that was lining a bowl of snacks) this past Wed. night. I was pretty tipsy at the time but after reassuring my guest that it was no big deal at all, I whisked it away, grabbed a bottle of a non-toxic stain remover called "Mom's Magic Goop", smothered it in the stuff and soaked it overnight in a measuring cup full of cold water. The thing was only a faint purple the next morning, er, afternoon. One more round and then threw it in the wash, good as new.
If it's a garment, Spray'N'Wash takes care of anything. ANYTHING. I spill red wine on me all the time and it always takes it out. It also works well on pomegranate juice and oil. You can even get the kind you pour directly into your wash.
For carpet stains, I do the blot method.
i spilled red wine, a couple tablespoon's worth, on a persian rug. we used the salt technique above w/ miraculous results. we put the salt on the stain and watched the salt "pull" the wine out of the rug. we vacuumed up the salt and no stain.
Boy did I need these tips on Thanksgiving day when an 18-month old grabbed a full glass of wine off of the table. Nobody knew he could even reach that high!
Damn! I could have used this on Saturday! A party guest spilled a whole glass of wine on our light taupe rug, causing me to toss it in the dumpster the next morning. Fortunately it was only a cheap ikea rug but still.
Folex neutralizes red wine. Available everywhere.
Our dog managed to knock an entire bottle of red wine onto our (rental) beige carpet. We spent a loooong time dabbing at the stain with carpet remover. The professional we finally got in said that he recommends immediately emptying a full bottle of cheap white wine over the area and then dabbing the stain to get the worst off and then adding salt. Leave to dry over night and hoover the next morning. He said on no account should one use supermarket-type cleaners as they just set the stain....
This happened at our place on Thanksgiving -- red wine on our cream colored rug. We used a combination of dish soap and hydrogen peroxide... it removes the color of the wine... it worked! Our rug is as good as new. Or at least as good as it was before I spilled my wine.
You can read here for more info:
http://www.howtogetridofstuff.com/stain-removal/how-to-get-rid-of-red-wine-stains/
Absolutely foolproof method, used to great success many times, once with a several-month old red wine stain:
Re-wet the stain, if it's dried, with white wine, or even vermouth. If it's still wet, don't bother.
Add oxy-clean, and a little water to make a paste.
Gently rub the paste around on the stain.
Let sit for 5 to 10 minutes if needed.
Wash.
For carpet or upholstery, the white wine and salt trick seems like the way to go, but I've never tried it personally.
Oh, oh I have another. I had a few friends over and a girlfriend brought along a date that happened to be a drycleaner. Bottle of red dropped on the rug. He asked for soda water and towels, stat. First he blotted the wine, then poured soda water over the area and kept blotting with a clean towel until it was all gone. He used alot of water, but No stain, no pain, no chemicals, nothing. He said red wine comes out right away if you immediately douse with water and blot it up.
Later a long strand (opera length) of pearls brought an entire full glass of red on my cream wool pants - ug, this was a work thing. Went to bathroom, ran water through the area. Blotted til dry, wool is wonderful to not showing big water stains. And it was all gone and I was able to walk back in as if nothing happened.
Gotta love H2O...