It should come as no surprise, then, that beverage professionals know a thing or two about cleaning up after a night of partying.
From how to get red wine out of the carpet to the best way to clean a decanter without turning your wrist into a pretzel, these pros have insider tips. Also on tap? The best way to avoid breaking delicate stemware and how to keep stains from setting in.
How to remove red wine stains using white wine
Sommelier Dlynn Proctor once demonstrated a wine-cleaning tip to me personally. Back in 2013 at a dinner held during the Pebble Beach Food & Wine festival, French chef Pierre Gagnaire’s enthusiastic hand gestures splashed my white cotton Marc Jacobs dress with the Scarecrow Cabernet Sauvignon Blanc. I was horrified until one of the sommeliers in attendance sent me to the back of the room.
There, Proctor doused the spots with a Bouchard Père & Fils Chardonnay. And the next morning, the spots disappeared when I washed them with water. Disaster avoided!
How to get red wine out of the carpet using salt
During her days as a renter in San Francisco, Waits-Mast winemaker Shalini Sekhar remembers the time the bottom of a wine bottle fell apart.
“It dumped red wine on this white carpet owned by a very nice and anal-retentive landlord,” recalls Sekhar, who also makes Grüner Veltliner under her Ottavino label. To resolve the spill, she said, “We did the salt thing.”
For the uninitiated, the “salt thing” involves blotting up as much of the red wine as possible with a towel - but being careful not to rub. Add water to rinse and blot dry again. Then, dump copious amounts of iodized salt onto the stain and let it dry.
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