With Christmas just a few days away, it’s not long until many of us will be tucking into a large midday or evening meal, with a wine or two to set off the palette.

 

I imagine I’m not the only person whose clothes, carpet or table cloth have been stained by red wine. How often has somebody accidentally knocked a glass over at your house? I was listening to my favourite radio station recently (I know I’m getting older because in the last year I’ve caught myself enjoying news & current affairs stations in preference to music stations). The announcer had taken her family to a public party and accidentally spilled red wine onto her daughter’s new dress. The two of them had gone to the bathroom to try and soak it up with a damp cloth.

 

While they were busily dabbing, an elderly Irish lady walked into the room. ‘What’r ya doin? That’s not the way to remove red wine, sure it’s not.’ She proceeded back outside, grabbed a bottle of white wine and poured it onto the stain. Apparently, the stain disappeared.

 

Two weeks ago my wife and I held a barbeque lunch in a park, and a friend spilt red wine over our table cloth. I couldn’t resist the opportunity to try white wine out. I poured it liberally over the stain. It ran through the joints in the table and dripped over our friend’s handbag as well (woops – but I suppose it had been dosed in red wine already). We dabbed it with a wet cloth, and in twenty minutes it was dry and apparently stain free. I was very impressed – we’d saved a $20 table cloth (but unfortunately ruined a $200 handbag). Trust the Irish to know all the tips there are to know on the subject of alcohol!

 

Have a Merry Christmas and wonderful New Year; and if you don’t believe me about the white wine, have a look at some of these links: