This tree is highly vigorous and scab resistant, but fireblight susceptible. Unlike most heirlooms, it is a reliable annual cropper, and the late bloom time enables it to avoid most frosts. This tree can be easily cultivated by an adventurous beginner. It is not a recommended pollenizer.

Clochard translates as "vagrant" and this causes one to wonder whether it got its name from being the preferred snack of the Gallic itinerant, or because the apple itself first appeared as a "wandering" seedling in someone's garden one day. (The meaning of reinette is literally "little queen," but this seems to have come to simply denote a class of apple at some point early in French apple history.) Either way, this rather unassuming looking, late-season apple is an intensely flavored treat. The yellow skin is freckled with russet lenticels, and the flesh is juicy and firm. The flavor is perfumed and subacid; tasters find notes of citrus, caramel, and lychee. It stores well for over three months, and it is one of France's favorite culinary apples.

Known since the first half of the 19th century, Reinette Clochard originated in the Deux-Sèvres region of France (toward the west coast, south of Nantes).