Abstract: The quality of both wine grape and wine are closely related to the size of berry. Grape berries of Vitis vinifera L. cv. Chardonnay from four producing areas of Shangrila in Yunnan, Yuquanying in Ningxia, Yantai in Shandong and Wujiaqu in Xinjiang were divided into large (> 14 mm), medium (14–12 mm), and small size (< 12 mm). The fruit size distribution, fresh peel mass and fresh fruit mass were measured; the contents of tartaric acid, sugar and total phenolics and other major quality indicators were detected, and the obtained data were analyzed using principal component analysis (PCA). The results showed that ‘Chardonnay’ born mostly medium and small fruits in the four producing areas, the number and mass of seeds in single berries increased with the increase of berry size and titratable acid content was higher in large berries; the contents of total phenols and tannin were higher in large berries from Wujiaqu and in small berries from other three producing areas; total flavonoid content was higher in small berries from Yuquanying and in medium berries from other producing areas while total flavanol content was higher in small berries from Shangrila and Wujiaqu, in medium berries from Yuquanying and in large berries from Yantai. The PCA showed that the overall quality scores of small berries from Yuquanying and large berries from Wujiaqu were the highest and lowest, respectively. The overall quality score of large grape berries from Yantai was higher, and the overall quality score of grape berries of different sizes from three other areas followed the descending order of small > medium > large.

Key words: wine grapes, ‘Chardonnay’, producing areas, berry size, quality