Taking into account the increasing demand by table fruits consumers, the quality characteristics of the grapes 'Italy', 'Festival' ('Superior Seedless'), 'Benitaka', and 'Isabel' exposed for sale in three supermarket chains from the city of João Pessoa - Paraíba - Brazil, were evaluated in December, 2007. Initially, it was selected and trained judges that established and defined the following sensorial attributes of importance: tonality and color, uniformity, aroma, firmness, presence of seeds, succulence, sweetness, acidity, flavor, and global quality. Diameters, lengths, and weight of berries were in accordance with the commercial or varietals parameters. The contents of soluble solids (SS), except for the 'Benitaka' grape, were in conformity with the commercial standards. Festival cultivar, the one presenting the lowest titratable acidity (TA), was the only one showing acceptable SS/TA ratio. Three sessions of quantitative descriptive analysis (QDA) were performed, in which 'Italy' grape was the one of better flavor and, together with the seedless 'Festival', presented higher sweetness and global quality. Isabel cultivar presented the best color, while Festival was the best for the attribute seed. The test of preference by ordering was applied, in which 'Italy' and 'Festival' grapes were preferred.
QDA; Postharvest; quality; Vitis
