The most anticipated cheese of winter
The Swiss Alps in the canton of Vaud are the birthplace of one of the most anticipated cheeses of winter, Vacherin Mont-d’Or. The milk from the high alpine landscape is used for most of the year to produce the famous Le Gruyère d’Alpage AOP. However, as the milk composition changes in the fall and becomes scarcer, the production shifts. The richer and fattier milk is then used to make one of the region’s most beloved seasonal cheeses.
Swiss Vacherin Mont dór AOP
Vacherin Mont-d’Or AOP is a unique soft cheese specialty from the Vaud Jura. In Vallée de Joux, it has been lovingly handcrafted for over 100 years and then matures to its delicate, mild flavor in the traditional aging cellar, acquiring its distinctive exquisite touch of tannin from the belt of local spruce.
Originally, Vacherin Mont-d’Or AOP was produced from October to spring due to the lack of milk for the production of large Gruyère blocks earlier in winter. This later became a tradition. Today, the production period extends from August to end of March.
After the cheese mass is pressed, the cheese is wrapped in a handmade strap of pine bark and immersed in a salt bath for 2 to 4 hours. It is then aged on pine boards. Over the next 17 days, the cheese is regularly turned and washed. At the end of the aging process, Vacherin Mont-d’Or AOP is packed in an equally handmade wooden box. Its diameter is slightly smaller than the cheese, allowing the desired waves in the rind to form. The cheese is best enjoyed when baked in the oven as a whole. In its melted state, its texture is particularly creamy and liquid, and the autumn tannin flavor develops optimally.
The secret behind
#1 Bark strap, the secret of a unique taste. Vacherins Mont-d’Or have this unique characteristic: very runny, especially at the end of the maturing process, encircled by a strip of spruce bark – from the time they are made until they are eaten. Cut and handcrafted from Jura fir trees, the straps transmit and blend the subtlety of wood scent with the flavors of the cheese. For an absolutely unparalleled taste.
#2 Milk from the alpine pastures of the Vaud Jura. Produced within the framework of a strictly defined PDO (Protected Designation of Origin), Vacherin Mont-d’Or gets its smoothness from the milk of cows fed on herbs and flowers. Produced exclusively between August and March with thermized milk, Vacherin Mont-d’Or develops its unique and inimitable aroma and texture during its maturation.
#3 The tradition of a know-how that spans through time. For over two centuries, men and women in this region have been crafting these delicious cow’s milk specialties, bound with wood and bark, every year at the same time. In the cellars where the last phase of production takes place, there are now less than fifteen cheese producers and affineurs remaining who uphold this tradition of making these cheeses for our own high taste pleasure.
Flavor & Tradition since 1812
Legends say that a soldier from Bourbaki’s army brought the famous recipe to Les Charbonnières in 1871. However, documents in the archives mention deliveries of Vacherin as early as 1812. The cheese dairy Charbonnières, founded in 1865, has been producing Vacherin Mont-d’Or since the first day of its existence, which was then matured by Jules-Moïse Rochat.
Our Range
Vacherin Mont-d’Or AOP is a unique soft cheese specialty from the Vaud Jura. In Vallée de Joux, it has been lovingly handcrafted for over 100 years and then matures to its delicate, mild flavor in the traditional aging cellar, acquiring its distinctive exquisite touch of tannin from the belt of local spruce.