Vacherin Mont d'Or

As the days get shorter in late autumn, Mont d`Or with its typical wood box can be found at our cheese counter.

   This cheese is unusual as it uses unpasteurised winter milk to form the soft, wonderfully aromatic and velvety cheese. Most cheeses need meadowsweet summer milk to reach this level of flavour. It is meltingly rich verging on clotted cream taste. The billowy crust is washed pinky peach with an earthy sappy aroma. The bark around the cheese helps to achieve its texture and perfume.

    Spreadable even when young, but to get the best effect and flavour you should eat it when it is fully ripe and runny. The traditional way of eating one is to cut off the top rind and eat the runny cheese out of the centre. Alternatively wrap a small or medium boxed cheese in tin foil and bake it in your oven at 180°C for 20 minutes. Remove the tin foil and lid of the cheese and cut a circle around the crust and lift it off to reveal the cheese. Dip in bite sized steamed new potatoes or pieces of French bread.

It best matches with Riesling