(FORTUNE Magazine) – BIOTECHNOLOGY is putting new sparkle into champagne production. A technique that uses encapsulated yeast speeds champagne making without sacrificing the wine's distinctive taste and color. It's the first major change in making the sparkling wine since the Benedictine monk Dom Perignon uncorked the secret nearly 300 years ago. Developed by Moet-Hennessy of France, the world's largest producer, the technique affects the process called remuage, literally the shaking of the champagne, which occurs after the second fermentation. The first stage, which lasts about six months, produces the wines that will be blended into champagne. The second brings out the fizz. To get that fizz, producers add live yeast and sugar, which remain in the bottle two to five years. But the second fermentation makes the wine cloudy and creates deposits that stick to the inside surface of the bottle. In the traditional method, lasting about three months, a highly trained craftsman, the remueur, rotates each bottle 45 degrees a day and gradually tilts it until it is upside down and vertical. At this point the yeast deposits are resting on the cork. To remove them, the neck of the bottle is frozen in an icy brine bath, then the cork and the plug of ice are extracted. , The bottle is topped with wine from the same vintage, and a bit more sugar is added. The amount of sugar determines the dryness or sweetness of the champagne. Finally the bottle is permanently corked and left for a few more months of aging. Moet scientists spent four years developing the new process. Technicians drop live yeast into a solution of two chemicals, alginate and calcium chloride. Each drop dries into a hardened pellet whose chemical coating has holes too small to let out sediment from the yeast but big enough to let in the wine. The wine flows into the pellets, bubbles flow out, and the remuage process is completed in three days. When the bottle is turned upside down, the pellets settle in the neck within a minute. They are then frozen and removed in the traditional way. So far Moet has used encapsulated yeast in only 1,000 bottles out of a total 1985 production of an estimated 28 million. Yves Benard, chief executive of the Moet & Chandon subsidiary, claims expert testers in blind tastings have found the flavor up to standard. He also maintains that the new champagne has the small bubbles connoisseurs prize. The technique will save labor costs and provide as much as 15% more storage space in wine racks, making it possible to increase output without additional investment. Of course production remains limited by the 85,000 acres in the Champagne region and by the vagaries of weather. In 1981 severe frost restricted production to 92 million bottles, vs. 1983 when a good harvest reaped 302 million bottles. But Benard says he's only interested in the drink: ''Our main objective is to improve the quality of the champagne and to get tiny bubbles.'' Moet-Hennessy plans to try the process in 5,000 bottles in 1986 and to license the technology to other French champagne producers. Whether the company will move from the experimental stage into full-scale production depends on how well the new champagne ages. That will take at least three more New Year's Eves to find out.