Vacherin Mont d’Or (AOC)
Vacherin du Haut-Doubs has been made for a mere 200 years. For decades Switzerland and France could reach no agreement on who had produced this extremely creamy washed-rind cheese first. Today it is produced in the Mont d'Or massif near the border. An agreement was reached only recently: Both cheeses originate in the Mont d'Or region, but the French raw-milk version is best called Vacherin du Haut Doubs, the pasteurized Swiss cheese Vacherin du Mont d'Or.

Production
The same 20 fruitières that manufacture Comté in spring and summer produce French Vacherin from the milk from Montbéliarde and Pie-Rouge-de-l'Est cows from August 15th to March 31st. The cheese is not heated; it is pressed gently and in shaping encircled with a strip of spruce bark. Then it is set on spruce boards and turned and washed with brine for at least 3 weeks.

The delight
The golden crust, tinged with mold shows cloth markings. The faint spruce fragrance does not drown the fruit, nut and milk aromas. The yellow pâte is so liquid that the cheese is best spooned out of the wooden box; serve with Côtes du Jura or champagne.

Milk:	Cow
Fidm:	50 %
Family:	Soft washed-rind cheese
Origin:	Doubs region, France
Size:	approx. 800g or 2.5 kg
Flavor:	distinct milk flavor, nutty, blended with the aroma of the spruce bark