Which Red? Revisiting Barbera

Even before our vines go in this spring, we have been cogitating on which red variety we would like to plant. We are vascillating, we are indecisive, we are confused, we are revisiting Barbera. Our introduction to the feasibility of growing Barbera in Connecticut was stoked by one of the trips we took to visit grapevine nurseries in California. We did our homework:
We visited Ann Kraemer at Shake Ridge Vineyards and Dick Cooper at Cooper Vineyards in the Sierra Foothills. At that time, both Ann and Dick commented on the high acidity that they were getting from their Barbera due mainly to the cool nights that occur in the Sierra Foothills which leads to the inability of the grapes to respire the acids. Ann mentioned that she tried to tame the acidity by trellising. We also tasted many Barberas from Italy. We were still not convinced.
This morning, while doing some New Year's cleaning, I pulled out an older Practical Winery and Vineyard, (January/February 1996) and came across an interesting article called "Barbera offers exciting versatility". The article was an interview with 12 winemakers from Italy and California including Angelo Gaja, Pio Boffa and Paolo Fenocchio from Italy and Jeff Meyers, Kevin Hamel and Scott Harvey, from California.
In Angelo Gaja's vineyards, yields are restricted to 1.5 to 1.75 tons per acre. The grapes are harvested based on flavor but generally are at 22.5^o Brix, with 0.94 titratable acidity and pH 3.04. This method of getting lower yields in Italy leads to getting good balance between the sugars and the acids, but the opposite phenomenon is observed by Kevin Hamel at Preston Vineyards where a higher crop level reduces the acidity.¹
What is nice about this article is that at the end, the twelve winemakers talk about the style of wines that they made and how they conduct their wine making.
In order to find out more about Barbera, I looked in the recently released Wine Grapes by Jancis Robinson, Julia Harding and José Vouillamoz. They write that the origins of Barbera is still unknown. Barbera retains a high level of acidity even when fully ripe.²
If you are from the Northeast and reading this blog and grow Barbera, please drop me a line and let me know of your experiences. Thanks!

1. Practical Winery and Vineyard, "Barbera offers exciting versatility", January/February 1996, pages 69-76.
2. J. Robinson, J. Harding and J. Vouillamoz, Wine Grapes - A complete guide to 1,368 vine varieties, including their origins and flavours, pg 85-87, Allen Lane 2012 ISBN 978-1-846-14446-2.