Mike Tipping meets a woman making waves in the world of wine.

Have you ever drunk Spanish riesling? No, neither have I but if winemaker Maria Martinez-Sierra has success with the grape, it could be with UK wine suppliers in the next few years.

Maria has even used Australian Richard Smart to advise on overall soil content for her riesling plantings. I met Maria, for lunch in Harrogate, shortly before her appearance at the York Festival of Food and Drink last month. Maria received her winemaking education in Spain, as well as a stint at wineries in Bordeaux during the 1970s. Two decades later, she received the Mercury Award for her contribution to the international reputation of Rioja wines.

Now a grandmother and also passionate about Spanish food, Maria is head winemaker for the Osborne estate in the Tierra de Castilla region.

Maria works in what is still a male-dominated industry but does not regard this as a problem because she believes she has gained their respect.

"I fought a lot at the beginning to gain the respect and admiration of others in this profession. Gender is not what matters," she said. "I am a wine-making rebel," Maria claims with pride. "If you're not a rebel you can't progress," she adds.

This might account for her experiments with international grape varietals such as riesling but she's also a traditionalist. Maria believes that wine and food are meant to go together, saying, "the Spanish invented tapas for friends to share with a glass of wine".

She dislikes most New World wines (with the exception of Chile), which she believes are often too sweet and high in alcohol. And, despite Maria's interest in other grapes, it is Spanish indigenous varietals that are the core of the two wines that are readily available in this country.

Firstly the fish friendly, fresh, crisp and clean Osborne Solaz Viura 2004. Nicely dry and slightly creamy in texture, it exhibits lime and grapefruit flavours and is unoaked.

I must admit to finding this grape variety a little one dimensional, the best examples I've tasted have all benefited from oak ageing, which adds coconut flavours into the equation.

As value for money goes, however, you'd be hard pressed to beat Osborne's red offering. Osborne Solaz Tempranillo/Cabernet Sauvignon 2003 is a nicely-structured wine, with plenty of gum-tingling tannins.

A little cabernet sauvignon is used in the blend resulting in a wine that is distinctly Spanish but with a modern twist.

There's plenty of fruit flavour, plum, cherry and raspberry, with hints of toastiness from the four months this wine spends in American oak.

Tippling term of the week: buttery

Used to describe the rich taste, colour and texture of a wine that is similar to (you've guessed it) butter. Usually it applies to oaked chardonnay.

Osborne Solaz Viura 2004, £4.99 at Wine Cellar 13/20

Osborne Solaz Tempranillo/Cabernet Sauvignon 2003, £3.98 at Asda, £4.99 at Wine Cellar 16/20

Updated: 16:03 Friday, October 14, 2005