No More Seeing Red

I enjoy reading your section every week, but I’ve never felt compelled to respond to you before reading “Spilling the Beans on Removing Wine Stains” (Jan. 23). As the former wife of a winemaker, I became expert at getting red wine stains out of clothing and tablecloths.

My grandmother taught me one that is almost infallible, and since it was used before the day of fancy new chemicals, it is available anywhere. Her advice was to always use boiling water on fruit-based stains and cold water on protein-based stains (meat juice, gravy, blood). Obviously the boiling water can only be used on a fabric that can withstand the heat.

The other system that works very well is to throw the wine-stained T-shirts (there are always a lot of those at “crush” time) in the washing machine with a lot of chlorine bleach and wash them using the hot water setting. In this case you can use detergent as well. I even used this method on a pink cotton dress that had had a glass of red wine dumped all over it. It brightened the pink color slightly but left not a sign of the wine stain.

SARAH CHAMBERLIN

Via e-mail

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I have found the best way to remove wine (or fruit juice) stains is to spread the stained fabric over the sink and pour boiling water over the stain from a height of about 2 feet. This should immediately remove all traces of the wine. Rinse the stain in cold water and then launder as usual.

SHEILA WALLACH

Westlake Village