Most wine lovers are aware that grapes become wine once fermentation has turned sugar into alcohol. The juice and the crushed grape skins remain together in a vat during maceration when color, tannins and flavor elements are extracted into the juice. The skins are removed after fermentation is complete. Just like red, only the maceration period is shorter as the desired color is paler, and the skins are removed prior to fermentation. After crushing and a very limited period of skin contact to absorb flavor, the juice is pressed off and fermented alone in a tank or in a barrel on its yeast lees.
Yeast can be man-made, called cultured yeasts, or they can be wild yeasts.
All have different effects on the finished wine. It all sound a bit murky. After fermentation and aging, the wine is clarified or cleaned, most commonly with egg whites, which help the particles in the wine sink to the bottom of the tank where they are racked off. A screen filtration is also common, but many winemakers believe this strips the wine of flavor and is thus losing popularity. But the trick to participating in a blind tasting is in learning about the small things.