Denis Larsson
For red wine stains – for example, red wine stains on canvas, red wine stains on the carpet, or red wine stains on clothes – there are several ingenious suggestions and the vast majority of them sound fantastically clever and resourceful after you have had a few glasses of the drink that gave rise to the red wine stain in question.
But regardless of which method you choose, it is important to act quickly. The less your canvas, your clothes, or your textiles have time to absorb the red pigment in the red wine, the easier it is to get rid of the red wine stain. This is probably why salt has become so popular because it is often close at hand.
And as with all stain removal, it is important to be careful and to be patient and repeat the step as many times as necessary.
- We have chosen to recommend salt, which seems to have the effect of absorbing most of the liquid and thus a lot of colors.
- Pour a small pile of salt on the red wine stain and then vacuum it up. Then dip it in boiling water.
- It is important to treat the stain quickly! Old wine stains are more difficult to remove than new red wine stains.
- An alternative to using salt is potato flour, which also absorbs liquid well.
- Wine stains (even older wine stains) on fabric such as cotton and linen are also said to disappear if dipped in boiling milk. Avoid this tip if your cloth or garment is made of wool or another heat-sensitive material.
- Another old housewife tip for removing red wine stains is gall soap: use liquid concentrated gall soap which should work well against red wine. Rub in the bile soap thoroughly with a damp sponge and then leave it on for about 15 minutes. Repeat if necessary.
- If you spill wine on a carpet and want to remove the red wine stains it might be worth using a mixture of hot water and washing up liquid and rubbing gently, but if it’s a nice carpet it might also be worth taking it in for carpet cleaning after first diluting the stain with water and then soaking up the water with salt.
