Graniwinkle is a vigorous, upright, and very productive tree. The tree is only slightly susceptible to scab and reliably annual. The fruit is splashed and striped red over a yellow background, with a yellowish flesh that is very sweet. It does not store well.

Although it is pleasant enough to eat, this apple has traditionally been used exclusively for cider blending. It yields a clean, crisp cider with notes of melon and berry. In 1817, William Coxe described Graniwinkle: "The flesh is dead sweet, very rich, of a yellow colour. The cider produced from this apple, resembles a sirup in its taste and consistence–it originated in one of the Eastern counties of New Jersey, and obtained its name from a farmer who first cultivated it: it is usually mixed with the Harrison for making cider of a superior quality." While some writers claim that Harrison, Campfield, Graniwinkle, and Poveshon were the four apples essential to Newark cider production before prohibition, Bussey in the Illustrated History of Apples in the United States and Canada speculates that Graniwinkle and Poveshon were the same apple. This would seem to be supported by the 1803 report in the Domestic Encyclopedia that "the first graft was taken from a tree belonging to an old lady, Mrs. Van Winkle Poveshon." (From WSU: Tannin (percent tannic acid): 0.08; Acid (percent malic acid): 0.30; pH: 3.90; SG: 1.045; ^oBrix 11.0.)