A cheese with a season, sold in a spruce box, and best eaten hot with a spoon.
Where it comes from
Mont d’Or, also called Vacherin du Haut-Doubs, comes from the Jura mountains on the French side of the Swiss border. It is made from raw cow’s milk, from the same Montbéliarde and Simmental cows that give milk for Comté.
In summer, the milk goes to big Comté wheels. When the cows come down from the high pastures and give less milk, the dairies make this small, soft cheese instead. It is made only from mid-August to mid-March, and sold from 10 September to 10 May.
Each cheese is wrapped in a strip of spruce bark and ripened on spruce planks for at least three weeks. Then it goes into a round spruce box. The wood is not decoration. It gives the cheese its resin and forest aroma. Mont d’Or has been a protected name since 1981.
Switzerland makes its own version, Vacherin Mont-d’Or, from heat-treated milk. It is a close relative, not the same cheese.
How it tastes
Under the wrinkled, pinkish rind is a soft, almost liquid heart. It tastes of cream, mushroom and spruce, with a gentle smokiness. Young, it is mild and milky. Riper, it becomes runnier and more savoury.
How to buy and serve it
- Buy it between September and May, ideally in deep winter, when it is at its best.
- Press the top gently through the box. It should give, like a ripe peach.
- Cold: cut a lid off the top crust and scoop it out with a spoon.
- Hot, the famous way (boîte chaude): leave it in its box, wrap the box in foil, make a few cuts in the top, add a little garlic and a splash of dry white wine. Bake at 200 °C for about 20 minutes.
The pairing
Our pick: a dry white from the mountains. A Jura Chardonnay or Savagnin, or a Savoie white such as Jacquère or Chignin-Bergeron. They have the acidity to cut the creamy cheese, and they come from the same mountains. Use the same wine for the splash in the box.
- Richer and rounder: Domaine Weinbach Pinot Gris “Clos des Capucins”. Its smoky, ripe fruit stands up to a hot, runny Mont d’Or.
- Close to home: a Luxembourg Moselle Riesling, dry and racy.
- Avoid: big red wines. The creamy cheese makes their tannin taste bitter.
Also try it with
- Boiled or baked potatoes, dipped straight into the box.
- Crusty bread, torn into pieces.
- Thin slices of cured ham, such as Jambon de Luxeuil or a smoked Moselle ham.
- Cornichons and a crisp green salad to freshen things up.
Every Wednesday we send one cheese, one dish and one bottle. Join the Wednesday letter.
More cheeses in the series → · See all twenty bottles →
Photo: Arnaud 25, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Please drink responsibly. L’abus d’alcool est dangereux pour la santé, à consommer avec modération.