1. Red wine, coffee and tea: tannin needs cold water and oxygen
These three behave identically. They are tannin stains: plant pigments that bond to fibre and darken with heat.
Act fast and blot, never rub. Press a clean white cloth or kitchen paper straight down onto the stain and lift. Rubbing spreads the liquid outward and grinds pigment between the fibres, which turns a coin-sized spill into a hand-sized haze that no longer has a clean edge to work from.
Flush from the back of the fabric with cold running water. Pushing the stain back out the way it came in is far more effective than pushing it through the weave. Keep going until the water runs clear.
Then treat with oxygen bleach — sodium percarbonate, sold as oxygen laundry booster or colour-safe powder bleach. Dissolve a scoop in warm water, submerge the item and soak for one to four hours, or overnight for an old mark. Oxygen bleach breaks the pigment’s colour bonds and is safe on most colours, unlike chlorine bleach which strips the dye with the stain.
Two things to skip. Salt is the folk remedy everyone reaches for; it absorbs some liquid but does nothing to the pigment and can set it as it dries. And white wine poured on red wine dilutes the spill at the cost of a second stain.
Wash normally afterwards at 30 to 40°C, then air-dry and check. Only tumble-dry once the mark is genuinely gone.