Fête du Vacherin Mont-d’Or in Switzerland
Fête du Vacherin Mont-d’Or celebrates the most famous local product of the canton of Vaud, Switzerland.
Every September, on the Saturday after *lundi du Jeûne, people come to the festival to watch the cows coming down from the Alps, savor the first cheese of the season and enjoy typical Swiss entertainment.
This year’s festival is September 23, 2017.
The history of Vacherin Mont-d’Or AOP (Appellation d’Origine Protégée) is closely linked with that of the village Les Charbonnières in the Vallée de Joux which celebrates this typical cheese.
The festival includes the Désalpe (celebrating the return of the cows from the mountain pastures to the plains), a local produce market, traditional entertainment and, above all, a chance to taste the first vacherin of the season.
The first cheese to be awarded the AOP label in Switzerland, Vacherin Mont-d’Or is a seasonally produced soft cheese which always comes in a distinctive box made of spruce, giving it its distinctive woody flavor. Connoisseurs enjoy it as it is or baked in the oven, from September to April.
If you miss this one, there’s another Désalpe and cheese fest September 30, 2017, in the Pays d’Enhaut village of Etivaz in Switzerland’s Vaudois Alps. A cheese made locally in the pastures, L’Etivaz AOP (Appellation d’Origine Protégée) is aged in the village’s cellars before being enjoyed on tables throughout Switzerland.
*The Federal Day of Thanksgiving, Repentance and Prayer is a public holiday in Switzerland set for the third Sunday in September. The next day (Lundi du Jeûne) is a public holiday in the canton of Vaud and unofficial holiday in the canton of Neuchâtel.
(Photo courtesy of Fête du Vacherin Mont-d’Or)
