I don’t see a lot of info out on this apple. I thought I’d start a thread to concentrate info here - does anyone have experience growing this one? I have one I grafted on G.11 but I’m considering replacing it with something else unless someone can convince me it’s a winner 
I don’t have much experience with it, but I know the folks at Vintage Virginia Apples have grown it.
If you are in the Albemarle (Va) area sometime and can get by there, assuming the actual owners are present on that day and not overly busy, they’ve often been happy to chat and share some of their experience/expertise with me when I’ve visited and might be worth a shot as an additional avenue of gleaning more info on this cultivar (or if you want to try the apple if you haven’t tasted it yet, you might luck out if they have some picked for sale in the fall that they haven’t designated for Cider production.
I recall trying a couple from them 2 years ago and thought it was a respectably flavored russet, but my wife didn’t care for the texture so I didn’t take extensive notes on it and haven’t grown it myself.
EDIT: for total transparency, I just looked back through my notes on apples we’ve tried and don’t actually see any notes on this one… I’m still fairly certain Zabergau was the one I’m thinking about, but take my above statement with a healthy pinch of salt since I either forgot to take any notes on that variety when I tried it, or I could have mixed it up in my mind with a different russet we tried.
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Mine is still in a pot, but it’s managed to ripen a few good sized apples anyway. Seems to be pretty disease resistant in my western Washington site. I find the apples to be very tasty, sort of zingy and crisp.
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I have been growing Zabergau Reinette for about 10 years. It is one of my family’s favorites. Normally a very large apple. Not a juicy apple per say but I was not expecting it to be. We like the flavor. The texture is crisp but not super crisp just firm. Not mealy ,not mushy. They are a very heavy apple in weight. We use them for eating, cooking, baking, and make apple butter with them. Great textured apple butter because they are not all watery/juicy.
The newer apple varieties all seem to all be that super crisp Honeycrisp type texture. Those newer variety all crunch apples seem to get very boring after a while.
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I agree with everything MikeC said. The texture does make it stand out. Not quite as extreme as a Black Oxford but close. Ive been growing it since 2000 and am on my 3rd planting. The variety is super vigorous and keeps out growing the rootstocks i put it on. The cider makers like to pick it as a sharp, although not technically a cider apple.
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