The Appellations of Origin "Mont d'Or" or "Mont-d'Or" can refer to two soft cow's milk cheeses with a washed rind produced in a contiguous area in the Jura Mountains.

The cheese produced in France in the Haut-Doubs region is called 'Mont d'Or' (without hyphen) or 'Vacherin du Haut-Doubs', while the cheese produced in Switzerland in the canton of Vaud is called 'Vacherin Mont-d'Or' (with hyphen) or simply 'Vacherin'.

Although the two cheeses are very similar, there are some differences, the most important being the use of raw milk in France and, since 2003, thermised milk in Switzerland.

These cheeses, which are particularly runny, have the particularity of being belted with a spruce bark strap, originally to facilitate transport, and of being delivered in a wooden box made from the same tree. Another specificity is that they are produced exclusively seasonally between August and March, and are therefore available for sale between September and May.

It is named after the Mont d'Or in the Jura massif, mostly in the French department of Doubs, but also located in a small part of the Swiss canton of Vaud.

The oldest mention of this type of cheese dates back to 1280, and concerns Savoyard cheeses.

There are few descriptions of the origin of this vacherin. There is a letter from Eugène Droz to Antoine Parmentier from 1799, in which he mentions "boëtte cheese".

At the end of the 18th century, this cheese was listed in the departmental register of cheese-making activities. Originally, the cows went back to the stables to spend the winter and as the milk production became less, it was no longer possible to make large wheels of Comté cheese, which required a lot of milk, so the vacherin was produced.

As for the word vacherin, it comes from the word cow and appears in Franco-Provençal writings as early as the 15th century.1865 and the foundation of the Société de Laiterie des Charbonnières that this cheese acquired its reputation and its commercial success outside its production area.

It was awarded prizes at the exhibitions in Yverdon in 1876, Geneva in 1880 and Zurich in 1838.