Using a completely randomized design with two treatments (50% defoliation and a control without defoliation) and six replications per treatment, the fruit quality and production of grape plants subjected to early partial-defoliation in Villa de Leyva - Colombia were determined. Five-year-old Vitis vinifera L. 'Chardonnay' plants were used as the plant material, planted in a trellis system with distances of 2.1 x 1 m. The plants were partially defoliated biweekly, removing every other recently emerged leaf in each of the plants subjected to the defoliation treatment. 130 days after the start of the pruning, the number of harvested clusters was determined for each of the evaluated plants along with the number of berries per cluster, the fresh weight of the clusters, the average berry weight, the fruit pH and diameter, the total soluble solids (TSS), the total titratable acidity (TTA) and the fruit maturity index (MI). The average weights of the clusters and the berries were significantly higher in the plants subjected to a reduced foliar area. All of the fruit quality parameter values increased with defoliation with the exception of TTA, which was higher in the control plants. Therefore, it was concluded that partial-defoliation had a pronounced influence on the fruit quality and production of the 'Chardonnay' grapes.