Loire ride for young cancer sufferers: Day 4 Nevers to Sancerre

Threatening storm clouds around Sancerre

After Day 4 of my ride we are now in Sancerre, so just over halfway down the Loire. The mid-point comes at the bridge across the river at Pouilly-sur-Loire. I included a shorter ride day, so we would have a chance to look at the vines. Apparently a few vines have been picked but the main harvest is due to start from the middle of next week. 

After a glorious start to September the weather has become decidedly unsettled from Wednesday – probably my fault for starting the ride that day. Currently it is stormy and humid. Hopefully the weather will soon take a turn for the better. Certainly the forecast shows that tomorrow there will just be a few showers with no thunder storms forecast unlike tonight. Then Monday and Tuesday it should be sunny with a wind from the north east to dry the grapes. On a very quick look around today (should stress that it was a quick visit) the grapes largely looked healthy but there is a little bit of rot about which would become a concern if the humid, stormy weather was to continue.

 Pinot Noir with a small touch of rot – 

entirely manageable if the weather improves

and the producer uses a sorting table or has good pickers

 2014 Sancerre ripening Sauvignon

Tomorrow I head north to Orléans and then west to Beaugency. To date we have raised £726 for Teenage Cancer Trust and 555€ for Fondation Gustave Roussy. Huge thanks to all who have generously donated so far.

It would be great to raise a lot more for this really important cause – if lots of readers of Jim's Loire donated just 5€ each or £5 it would mount up rapidly and make such a difference! Retweets and Facebook likes are great, but a small donation would be even better and would benefit young cancer sufferers.

Here's how you can donate:

For Teenage Cancer Trust in the UK: 
http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/JimBudd
For Fondation Gustave Roussy in France: 
https://igr.friendraising.eu/jim.budd
With anticipated thanks.