Mont d'Or / Vacherin du Haut-Doubs

The Syndicat Interprofessionnel de Défense du Mont d'Or (SIMO) is the defence and management organisation (ODG) for Mont d'Or / Vacherin du Haut-Doubs, recognised as AOC as early as 1981 and then as PDO (AOP) in 1996. The appellation's specifications designate it as the applicant group, open to any individual or legal entity actively involved in the production, processing or maturing of the cheese in compliance with the appellation's rules. It thus brings together the entire Haut-Doubs sector: some five hundred milk producers supply around ten cheese dairies, alongside the 'sangliers' who harvest the spruce bark strap characteristic of the cheese, and the makers of the wooden boxes that accompany it through to sale.

The association ensures compliance with the specifications — exclusively raw milk from Montbéliarde and Simmental cows, a production area above 700 metres in altitude, manufacture from 15 August to 15 March, and sales from 10 September to 10 May — and drives the life of the appellation: it publishes the history and traditions of Mont d'Or, shares key dates of the season, and each year organises the Fête du Mont d'Or, which in early September marks the opening of the sales period.

Fromagerie Napiot presents itself as a cheesemaker and affineur established in 1860, located in Val-d'Usiers in the heart of Haut-Doubs. It claims several gold medals at the Concours Général Agricole for its Mont d'Or PDO (AOP) and Comté PDO, including three gold medals in the 2025–2026 competitions. It runs the Relais du Terroir, an adjoining shop offering around 600 local terroir products — cheeses, charcuterie, honeys, wines and liqueurs, groceries —, complemented by a restaurant and a dedicated event space. Sales are also available online, with in-store collection (click & collect) or home delivery via ChronoFresh.

Fromagerie Badoz presents itself as a family-run cheesemaker and affineur, handed down from father to son since 1961. It collects milk daily, processing and maturing it in-house before marketing a range of Jura PDO (AOP) cheeses — Comté, Mont d'Or, and Morbier — as well as Cancoillotte PGI (IGP). It sells its produce in its shops in Pontarlier, Levier, and Les Fourgs.

According to the CIGC (Comité Interprofessionnel de Gestion du Comté), the Fruitière de Valoreille-Fleurey is located in the village of Valoreille, perched at an altitude of 750 m north of the Comté PDO (AOP) zone, overlooking the Dessoubre valley, renowned for fishing and its wild character. It brings together 18 member farmers and processes 5.3 million litres of milk a year, 90% of which is made into Comté PDO — matured by Maison Petite as well as, for a small share, on site — and 10% into Morbier PDO and raclette. 17 farms from the communes of Valoreille, Fleurey, and Terres-de-Chaux deliver their milk to it daily.

Its small shop offers Comté matured on site, homemade raw butter, homemade fromages blancs, homemade Morbier, Mont d'Or, cancoillotte, yoghurts, and a few soft cheeses; visits are possible by reservation. The shop is open all year round from 8:30 to 11:00. In September 2023, a 35-month Comté produced at the fruitière and matured in the Doubs was served at Versailles during the dinner marking the first official visit to France by King Charles III and Queen Camilla — 180 guests tasted it.

The Coopérative Les Monts de Joux presents itself as an independent dairy cooperative based in Bannans (Haut-Doubs), uniting around 265 producers. Its cheeses are made from raw milk at the Bannans site and in a dozen Comté fruitières scattered across the Jura Massif. Its range includes Comté (young, fruity, or long-aged), Morbier, Mont d'Or, and Bleu de Gex, as well as raw-milk raclette and tomme de montagne.

Perched at an altitude of over 1,100 metres in Les Fourgs, the village nicknamed the 'roof of the Doubs', the Fromagerie des Fourgs is a cooperative fruitière that has brought together eleven farms from the Haut-Doubs since 2017. Its shop, curiously housed in the same building as the town hall and the post office, allows visitors to observe the cheese-making workshop through large picture windows. Three Comté cheeses are crafted here — mild, high-altitude, and terroir —, complemented in season by Mont d'Or, as well as by neighbouring specialities: raclette, Münster Ermitage, Morbier, cancoillotte, and goat's cheeses.

The shop also offers a selection of regional produce — Jura wines, honeys, cured meats — to complete a mountain cheese board. The fromagerie's Mont d'Or won the silver medal at the Concours Général Agricole 2026, confirming the reputation of Haut-Doubs fruitières for this emblematic winter cheese. The shop is open all year round, from Monday to Saturday as well as Sunday mornings and public holidays.

Nestled at the foot of the Mont d'Or mountain in Métabief, this family dairy is one of ten workshops that make Mont d'Or / Vacherin du Haut-Doubs — and the only farmhouse producer among them. Late in the evening or in the early hours of the night, the cheesemakers do the rounds to collect milk from a dozen producers in the surrounding villages, exclusively Montbéliarde cow's milk — around 7,000 litres a day. For 50 years, the Sancey-Richard family has carried on the Franche-Comté cheesemaking tradition here.

Patrick Sancey-Richard long oversaw the cheesemaking; today, the mantle has been taken up by his nephew, Eddy, continuing an exacting craft — the "coiffage" of the curd grain after cutting, which gives Mont d'Or its creamy character.

The dairy presents itself as making three Franche-Comté PDO (AOP) cheeses — Comté, Morbier and Mont d'Or — sold on site and online, as well as house specialities (Cernois, Metsi, P'tit Sancey…). It offers a free self-guided tour of its workshops every day at 9:00 from a glass-fronted gallery overlooking two production halls, followed by a complimentary Comté tasting in the shop.