Our Vacherin Mont d'Or cannot really carry this name because it is produced with much higher temperatures for the milk than the AOC rules for the VMO allow. Hence the cheesemakers had to rename it and chose Petit Vaccarinus (little cowherd), because that gave them a link to VOM via the name of a monk who allegedly brought the recipe for this cheese from the Spanish Cloister of Monserrat. As far as we know this is also the cheese that started the banding of cheese with cambium taken from spruce trees. You will find the spruce bark around the cheese inside the small wooden box that the cheese is aged in. You will usually find it after al the luscious goodness of the cheese has been consumed and it is not necessary to take the cheese out of its box. The rind has been washed in brine which creates a lot of bacterial activity on the top of the cheese. Do not be alarmed by the flecks of mold that may form (they can be white, yellow and even black). They are all part and parcel of the cheese. The cheese gets its tell-tale ripple in the top when it is placed in a wooden box which is slightly smaller than the cheese. It definitely has a barnyardy, fall forest smell. The paste is gooey, full flavored with tones of hazelnuts, cooked milk and spruce. If the lid of the cheese is too daunting for you, you can peel it back and then scoop out the goodness. A slightly off-dry white would be our drink of choice.
YOU MUST SELECT Overnight or 2 day air shipping, we will not ship ground anywhere except NJ/ NYC
