BA in Biology, MA in Microbiology; Holds patents on several medical devices, owned and operated a medical laboratory specializing in veterinary medicine, taught at Gavilan College and at Foothill College for several years. At Foothill he was responsible for starting the Animal Health Technology Program.
Started a clinical labratory that specialized in animal pathology and was involved with the Biology Department of NASA doing workups on the space monkeys and dogs at a private animal reference laboratory Jim had founded. A few years later, Jim founded a marketing and printing company doing design and marketing work for many companies in the tri-county area. His true love of grape farming and wine making bloomed when he assisted Ken Burnap, (Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyard) with pruning his vineyard in the ninteen-eighties. Later, Sal Godinez was a big influence in helping Alberti develop his own "style" of growing grapes and making Pinot Noir. With his background in microbiology, Jim was able to quickly integrate the technological aspects of microbiology into winemaking. Alberti understands the complete biodynamics of the natural enviornemnt in which a particular wine is produced. Climate and local weather conditions, topography, soil, biology of the vine and microbiology of the grape are all contributing factors. He understands how the micro-organism populations and their relationships with one another participate in the complexity of complex polymers that form. It is these complex polymers or "flavor profiles" that arouse our senses. The "terroir" is defined as complete natural environment (both macro, (including factors such as the soil, topography, climate and local weather) and micro (the community of microbes living in the vineyard and on the fruit) that come into play when a particular wine is produced. It is the terroir both (macro and micro) that provide annual changes in each vintage. The Alberti style of winemaking, including the use of the finest French oak barrels which add their own unique flavors, seem to capture a "snapshot of the terroir in time".
