I was skeptical of the effectiveness of this tip, not to mention what raisins might do to the flavor of the champagne. I read this while visiting my friend Brea in Boston, and luckily, she just so happened to have 1/5 bottle of opened California sparkling wine in the refrigerator that had been opened (although vacuum sealed) for 5 days.
I tested the tip out, with the following results. The control glass is shown below, poured from the bottle and photographed within 30 seconds.
For the second glass, I added a few raisins and much to my surprise, bubbles started to appear!
But here is the problem. The bubbles didn't last very long, and based on my blind tasting, not enough bubbles were created to fool my palate. I actually thought that the flat glass had more fizz during my blind taste test. I didn't notice a negative flavor impact of adding the raisins, but the irony of adding raisins to fermented grape juice was not lost on me. And then there is the visual problem of having raisins in the bottom of your glass.
All in all, the Real Simple tip was a creative, fun visual effect. But a solution for reviving flat champagne? I don't think so. I'd like to propose a more fool-proof solution: don't let there be any leftovers in the first place!
