Red Wine, please stop staining our stone!

When you go online to look for advice on how to remove food or drink related stains from your natural stone surfaces, you’ll likely find more than two million websites offering advice, tips, and numerous methods to handle this household situation.

Spilling food or drinks is something that happens far too often. Wine for example, has been ruining garments, sofas, rugs and carpets for decades. But, when it comes to wine spilled on natural-stone countertops, there is more than staining to worry about. In some cases, wine can break the seal of the stone or cause etching, which is a chemical reaction that causes damage to the surface of the stone.

Wine

If you have natural stone surfaces and keep wine in your house, a spill is bound to happen at some point. Most people associate being tipsy and clumsy as the main culprits of wine spills, but this has more to do with the bottling, packaging, and serving of wine.

Most spills happen before anyone gets a sip. The uncorking process is awkward, particularly when it must be followed by pouring wine into flute-style glasses with long stems. Even the built-in dispensers in wine boxes are hardly spill-proof.

Should spilled wine form a stain on your natural stone surfaces, your granite sealer needs to be reapplied as soon as possible.

Before resealing, remove stains by soaking a paper towel or cotton balls in bleach and placing it right on top of the affected area, then allowing it to sit for 24 hours before rinsing with water. If this does not work, lightly spraying bleach and scrub with a soft nylon brush.

Like most liquid substances, wine has the potential of leaving stains on natural stone surfaces if the stone does not have an adequate seal. Let’s say you throw a party to show off your new gourmet kitchen complete with a center island and granite counter.

Assuming the slab was sealed by the contractor, spilled wine will not form a stain, thus you can safely wipe it off with a cloth and stone-safe granite countertop cleaner. You can keep this seal fresh by frequently applying a sealer specifically formulated for stone. By doing this, you will not have to panic each time wine is accidentally spilled.

If you are interested in adding natural stone to your home, office or retail space, contact us at GMS Werks and we would love to help you create the space you’ve always dreamed of!