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How To: Foolproof Red Wine Stain Removal

Gregory Han
Gregory Han
A Los Angeles native, Gregory’s interests fall upon the relationship between design, nature, and technology. His resume includes art director, toy designer, and design writer. Co-author of Poketo's "Creative Spaces: People, Homes, and Studios to Inspire", you can find him regularly at Design Milk and the New York Times Wirecutter. Gregory lives with his wife Emily and their two cats—Eames and Eero—in Mt. Washington, California, curiously investigating the entomological and mycological.
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updated May 10, 2019
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(Image credit: Apartment Therapy)
Our new friends before the wine mishap.

A recent lovely evening of food, conversation and wine came to a halt when we noticed a few drops of red wine had stained the embroidered tablecloth we were dining upon. Emily immediately turned to the ole fashioned pile of salt routine, but this didn’t seem to work as well as we had hoped. Upon doing some research about this matter, we came upon a wine stain cleaning solution that was tested and approved by the esteemed viticulture program at UC Davis…

This is absolutely foolproof for any laundered items! Mix Dawn dishwashing liquid soap with hydrogen peroxide…then pour on the stain and let sit as a presoak. Neither of these ingredients works by itself. You must use BOTH. You’ll actually see the red wine disappear as you drizzle the mixture on a stain! I have used it to take major red wine stains out of ALL clothing and table cloths (regardless of the color of the item). I have used it on old dried stains and stains that were laundered, bleached and subsequently turned “yellow”. OLD, old stains have been successfully removed. Just make sure the soap/peroxide mixture is relatively fresh. I used some the other day that was a few months old (I keep a bottle on my washing machine and pre-treat clothes as I see them coming through on wash day) and it did not remove a particularly large stain completely. –How to Remove Wine Stains Patty’s Formula

We also discovered that a Tide stain stick is very good at removing wine stains with a bit of focused gentle scrubbing. We were able to remove about 95% of the visible stain. But next time we’re trying Patty’s formula up above!

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