The thermal and phase properties of a multifragmentation model which uses clusters as degrees of freedom, are explored as a function of isospin. A good qualitative agreement is found with the phase diagram of asymmetric nuclear matter as established by different mean-field models. In particular, from the convexity properties of the nuclear entropy, we show that uncharged finite nuclei display first and second order liquid-gas-like phase transitions. Different quantities are examined to connect the thermal properties of the system to cluster observables. In particular we show that fractionation is only a loose indication of phase coexistence. A simple analytical formula is proposed and tested to evaluate the symmetry (free) energy from the widths of isotopic distributions. Assuming that one may restore the isotopic composition of break-up fragments, it is found that some selected isotopic observables can allow to quantitatively access the freeze-out symmetry energy in multifragmentation experiments. ; Comment: 23 pages, 7 figures