(Wines&Vines) - Viticulturists and enologists from up and down the Eastern Seaboard convened in Thomas Jefferson’s hometown last week for the annual conference of the American Society for Enology and Viticulture-Eastern Section. Jefferson tried for years to grow grapes on his Monticello estate outside Charlottesville, but his attempts never succeeded. With the availability of modern fungicides, herbicides and insecticides, however, many grape varieties now thrive in the region, and the Monticello Wine Trail currently has 33 wineries, all located in the Monticello American Viticultural Area.