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 is called "Mont d'Or" (without hyphen) or "Vacherin du Haut-Doubs", while the one 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 girdled by 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 it is produced exclusively seasonally between August and March, and is therefore available for sale between September and May

It takes its name from the Mont d'Or in the Jura massif, mostly in the French department of Doubs, but also located in a small part in the Swiss canton of Vaud.

It has had an AOC in France since 1981 and in Switzerland since 2003, and 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 down to the stables for the winter and milk production was reduced, so it was no longer possible to make large wheels of Comté cheese, which were particularly demanding.

It was no longer possible to make large wheels of Comté cheese, which required a lot of milk, so they produced Vacherin cheese.

As for the word vacherin, it comes from the word cow and appears in Franco-Provençal writings as early as the 15th century. It was in 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.