Has anyone ever had success removing red wine stains from a carpet using salt?

I had a party at my house two weeks ago and a friend spilled his glass of red wine on my gray carpet. Another friend immediately poured an enormous amount of salt all over the spill saying it was foolproof way of preventing the carpet from stain. My skepticism was vindicated the next morning when I vacuumed the salt and found a red wine stain on the carpet. Any thoughts? Is this myth?