It’s time to climb the Golden Mountain! One of our favourite cheeses is back in stock for its all-too-brief season…

The name Vacherin is used by cheesemakers in both France and Switzerland, straddling the mountainous border in the Jura area. Both versions are delicious, and to be honest they taste very similar and are mostly differentiated by their names: Vacherin du Haut-Doubs in France and Vacherin Mont d’Or in Switzerland. It’s the Swiss one that we usually have, which is unpasteurised and uses traditional (i.e. animal) rennet. Check at time of purchase if these things are important to you, as cheesemakers differ in their approach.

Wherever it comes from, it is made with cow’s milk, and is aged and sold in a special round box made of spruce. This not only looks good, but is the ideal container for baking. Warm the often to 160c or thereabouts, place the cheese (lid off and underneath for extra leak-proofing) on a baking tray, and heat it for about 15 minutes. You can take it out early for a firmer result, or leave it in a bit longer for a really runny effort. Just keep an eye on it to make sure it isn’t running away entirely!

You can then spoon it onto crusty bread or toast, or dribble it generously over roasted vegetables. Or dollop it into a baked tattie!

If you want a double dose of protein, you can even drop a generous spoonful on top of a steak or a chicken breast just before you serve it.

Cookbooks have suggestions for complicated variations like cutting the top rind in a cross, or inserting slivers of garlic, or dribbling with white wine before baking, or (as I often do) for sticking in a few sprigs of herbs such as rosemary. What they don’t say is that any leftover scraps of baked cheese and rind you can scrape out of the box the next morning are particularly delicious…

A good glass of wine to accompany the Vacherin will turn a simple meal into a feast. Our current top recommendations are two wines we imported directly from Savoie, on the French side of the Alps: mountain wines for mountain cheese! Both coming from a tiny winery run by a charming couple, Benjamin and Diane Vendange, and both are made from grapes grown here and nowhere else – so unique flavours.

The white is a Roussette de Savoie, made using Altesse grapes, and it’s unoaked and lemony, with an interesting minerality. The makers recommend drinking it with fresh water dish like char, but we think it’s great with cheese too specially if you are just having a smallish amount.

The red is a Vin de Savoie, made with Monduese grapes. Opening a few hours in advance is a good thing, or decanting into a jug or decanter. This really helps the wine open up and reveal its complex aromas of violets, cocoa and intense berry fruit. A fairly powerful wine, this is good for a lengthy cheese session or indeed to accompany steak – with or without Vacherin on top!

Both bottles are mid-priced at £15.99. Vendange’s Crémant de Savoie is superb too, but we have run out of that. Their rosé is also well worth a try.

V for Vacherin, V for Vendange!