The First Two Minutes
What you do in the next two minutes matters more than anything you will do afterwards, and most of the damage that ruins good linen is done in exactly that window, by someone trying to help.
Three responses cause more harm than the spill itself. Hot water, which coagulates protein stains and makes them substantially harder to remove. Chlorine bleach, which weakens the cellulose in linen and yellows it over repeated washes. And rubbing, which frays the surface and pushes the mark outward into the weave instead of lifting it.
The correct first move is almost always the same: blot, do not rub, and use cold water. When you do not know what caused the mark, cold is the safer choice. Heat can make some stains a great deal harder to shift.
Blot from the front. Flush from the back. Cold water, every time you are not certain.
Which Linen Are You Holding
Most stain guides treat linen as one material. On a MI RE LA table there are three, and they do not behave the same way at all.
The placemat, resin-coated
Here the liquid is sitting on the surface rather than in the cloth, so the answer is a damp cloth and speed. Wipe promptly, before the spill has time to settle: the coating works best when it is not asked to hold a stain for an hour.
What not to do: do not soak the placemat, do not scrub it, and do not put the complete piece in a machine. The disc inside is not made for water, and abrasion damages the coating that is doing the work.
The dinner napkin, washed linen
Absorbent by design, which is the point of a napkin. This is the one that takes the full treatment described below, and it takes it well.
The cocktail napkin, crisp linen
Same fiber, no coating, and in practice the piece that meets red wine and citrus more often than anything else on the table, because it spends its life underneath a glass. Small and pale, so a mark shows. Treat it like the dinner napkin, and treat it sooner.
By Stain
Red wine
Blot, do not rub. Stretch the fabric over a bowl and flush cold water through from the reverse, so the wine travels back out the way it came rather than deeper in. Then leave it in cold water with detergent, or an oxygen-based stain remover, for half an hour before washing. Wine is a tannin stain, and oxygen bleach is what lifts tannin.
The salt trick you have heard about does something real, which is absorb liquid still sitting on the surface. It does not remove the pigment already in the fiber, and it is not a substitute for the rinse.
Oil and grease
Do not put water on it first. Cover the mark with something absorbent, cornstarch or bicarbonate, and give it fifteen minutes to draw the oil up. Brush the powder away, then work a little liquid dish soap into the mark, which is formulated to break down fat, and leave it a few minutes before washing.
Coffee and tea
Also tannin, so the same approach as wine: cold water from the back, then a soak with detergent or oxygen bleach. Sources disagree about whether heat helps on tannin stains. It sometimes does, and it will permanently ruin a protein stain if you have misjudged what you are looking at, which is why cold is the answer when you are not sure.
Anything protein
Egg, dairy, gravy, blood. Cold water first, and this is the rule worth remembering above the others: heat coagulates the protein into the weave and what could have come out easily becomes very difficult. An enzyme presoak is what breaks these down.
Candle wax
Let it harden completely, or speed that up with an ice cube, then lift off what comes away with the edge of a spoon. For plain, uncolored wax, the residue can be transferred into absorbent paper with low, controlled heat, so that it melts into the paper rather than the linen. Test first, and be particularly careful with colored candles or dyed linen, where heat can fix the pigment instead of lifting it.
Check that the stain has actually gone. Heat from a dryer locks in whatever is left, and a mark that survived the wash and then survived the dryer is usually there for good.
If you are unsure, air dry. That way you can treat it again.
What Not to Reach For
Chlorine bleach is the main one. It attacks the cellulose that linen is made of, weakens the fiber over repeated use, and yellows white linen rather than whitening it. On colored linen it is simply destructive. Where you would have reached for bleach, reach for oxygen bleach instead. Hydrogen peroxide can also be used carefully on some white linen, after testing a hidden area.
Fabric softener is the quiet one. It works by leaving a coating on the fiber, and that coating repels water. On a napkin, whose whole job is to absorb, it is the wrong product.
And whatever you use, test it first on a hem or a corner that nobody sees.
When It Is Too Late
Sometimes a mark sets. Something sat overnight, or someone helped with hot water before you got there. The slow version of the same problem belongs to linen kept for occasions, because a napkin used twice a year waits months before anyone deals with it.
On a napkin, an enzyme presoak and a second wash will usually take out more than you expect, and linen tolerates being treated twice.
On a placemat, there is a step that only exists because of how ours are built. The linen top is not glued or stitched to the disc: it comes off in a few seconds. Once separated, it can be washed properly on its own, at a maximum of 105°F / 40°C on a gentle cycle, without softener and without spin, dried in the shade and pressed on the reverse at medium heat.
And if a top is genuinely beyond saving, the disc is not. A replacement top in any motif from the current collections can be ordered on its own. The full explanation of how the piece comes apart is in A Placemat, Built Like a Charger.
How do you get red wine out of linen?
Blot without rubbing, then flush cold water through the fabric from the reverse side so the wine leaves the way it entered. Soak in cold water with detergent or an oxygen-based stain remover for around thirty minutes, then wash. Avoid hot water and never use chlorine bleach on linen.
Can you use bleach on linen?
Not chlorine bleach. It breaks down the cellulose fibers and yellows white linen over repeated washes. Oxygen bleach lifts a wide range of stains without that damage. Hydrogen peroxide can also be used cautiously on some white linen, after testing an inconspicuous area first.
Why should you never use hot water on a stain?
Because heat coagulates protein stains: blood, egg, dairy and gravy set into the weave and become substantially harder to remove. Heat can help on some tannin stains, but if you have misread which type you are dealing with the mistake is difficult to undo. Cold water is the safer default.
How do you clean a coated linen placemat?
Wipe the surface promptly with a damp cloth. Do not soak or scrub the complete placemat and do not put it in a machine. If a deeper clean is needed, remove the linen top from the disc and wash it alone at a maximum of 105°F / 40°C on a gentle cycle, with no softener, no spin and no chlorine bleach, then dry it in the shade.
Does salt remove red wine from linen?
Salt absorbs liquid still sitting on the surface, which is useful in the first seconds, but it does not remove pigment that has already reached the fiber. Use it if it is what you have to hand, then rinse from the back with cold water regardless.