In a split second, you watch as a top-heavy sports towels wine glass begins to wobble. Then, the contents splash onto the nearest surface. If you're lucky, it pools on a table or a hard floor where you can easily wipe it up. Or, maybe it spills onto the carpet or some upholstery. Before you have time to think, you grab the nearest towel and soak up what you can of this notoriously hard-to-clean substance before it sets.The good news is, you acted fast and cleaned up the spill. That's what towels are for. In the end, you'd probably rather replace a towel than a carpet. Don't throw in the towel quite yet, though! You should be able to get that stain out with the right cleaning supplies and methods.
Whether you're a thrifty shopper looking to remove a stain after a dinner party fiasco, or a restaurant or bar owner who cleans up wine spills all the time, you can get your towels looking fresh again. Learn how to clean wine stains out of towels and other fabrics with this guide.Red wine might be one of the most stubborn stains of all. Even grease stains feel easy to clean by comparison. While some assume it's because of the color, that's not exactly the case. Artificial reds, like those found in juice or soft drinks, come out much more readily than red wine. That's because wine gets its color naturally from chromogens, which produce vibrant red colors in plants.Chromogens are in many red dyes.
Red wine also contains tannins, another ingredient in ink production. So while many red-colored stains lift relatively easily, red wine is essentially dyeing your towel. Since we usually use them for permanent coloration, dyes are challenging to remove from fabric. And just like your favorite red shirt doesn't turn white in the wash, a wine-stained towel is tough to clean.With any stain, you're better off when the liquid is still wet. As the liquid dries, it soaks further into your fabric's fibers. It spreads a bit further and has a higher chance of dyeing the material. Start cleaning as soon as possible. If your towel is pure white, you don't need to worry as much about your cleaner selection. Although not usually necessary, bleach could restore your linens to their bright whites.
If your towel is any other color, make sure you have a color-safe fabric cleaner. Scrubbing the fabric can also cause the wine to spread and embed itself further beneath the surface. While this is a more significant problem with carpets and upholstery, it can still worsen a towel stain.You don't want the stain to dry out, and hot air quickens this process. Heat also causes a chemical reaction with wine stains to make them more permanent. Don't use a hairdryer or throw the towel in the dryer before you've prewashed it.Most quality towels are 100% cotton. That's some good news for your stain because removing wine stains from cotton is relatively simple. Food dyes cannot build a strong chemical bond with cotton, linen, rayon or hemp, making these materials easy to wash out. As another plus, towels are washable, unlike upholstery and carpet. After a little pretreatment, leave the heavy-duty cleaning to your washing machine.
