To continue with the account by Francisco Javier Goicolea, the end of the Middle Ages was marked by a certain expansion of the vineyards in Quel, as observed by the fact that wine accounted for the second best valuation in maravedíes in the tithes collected by the Church, «which, together with other figures, appears to confirm that vineyard cultivation experienced a certain expansion in the farmland of Quel.
In fact, it is important to recall the interest of the inhabitants of Quel in planting vineyards at that time. This had led to a licence granted (and later revoked) by García Sánchez de Alfaro II to allow each inhabitant to plant ten peonadas of vines on non-irrigated land (a peonada is the amount of land that a farm labourer could work in one day). And these same lords of Quel took a great interest in this crop: they were the owners of the vineyards within the jurisdiction of the chartered town, they barrelled the wine in the the barrels held in their “palaces” of Quel, and their vassals were required to pay them winegrowing rights (revenue from the grapes, harvesters and wine).
In all likelihood, the markets of the thriving urban centres in the surrounding area, such as Arnedo or Calahorra, served to boost the cultivation of this food product that was increasingly demanded by urban populations».

The Cadastre of the Marqués de la Ensenada, whose name was Zenón de Somodevilla y Bengoechea, an eminent Riojan, born in Hervías on 20th April 1702, reported on the growth of Quel in the 18th century: “The municipality of these chartered towns of Quel de Yuso and Quel de Suso covered, from east to west, seventeen thousand two hundred and fifty-five yardsticks and, from north to south, three thousand nine hundred and fifty-five yardsticks. And with a circumference of thirty-three thousand one hundred and forty-four yardsticks which makes six and a half leagues and twenty-four yardsticks, calculated at five thousand yardsticks per league and league per hour”.

In the 18th century, as reported by the work “Quel Histórico” (Historical Quel), the expansion of one specific crop changed the appearance of the non-irrigated land in Quel: the vine. With 542 hectares in production and a further 28 “planted” with “first and second leaves”, Quel was one of the major producers in La Rioja Baja, despite the fact that it was close to Arnedo, the largest wine producer in La Rioja Baja at that time. However, Quel was also geographically close to the episcopal city of Calahorra, which had but few vineyards and, for this reason, it was the city’s main supplier of wine. As a result, almost every inhabitant had vines and a winery as well. For the 338 inhabitants of Quel recorded in the census (including 59 widows and 3 spinsters, who were counted as half an inhabitant) there were no less than 224 wineries in Quel. These wineries were located “in three districts called Las Coronas” and they already had their present-day appearance, with their upper loading system in order to adapt to the hill. Many of the unusual wineries of today are unquestionably from this period of splendour of wine in Quel. So much so that the cadastre surveyors calculated that the wine contained in the barrels in the wineries could reach 50,000 pitchers.

In 1851, as reported in the work ‘Los Barrios de Bodegas : Quel, un ejemplo singular’ (the winery districts: Quel a unique example), in the cadastre conducted by Madoz, the number of wineries in Quel had significantly increased in relation to the 224 indicated by the Marqués de la Ensenada: «Opposite the town, on the other side of the river Cidacos and at a distance of some 700 yardsticks, lies a gentle hillock that runs from Arnedillo to Autol in which more than 350 caves or cellars have been excavated to store wine». The authors of the work maintain that the number of wineries indicated by Madoz «appears to be exaggerated» and present another source «consulted in the Historical Archive of La Rioja» which offers the far from negligible figure of 240 caves in 1860 which «formed three groups, with the first at a distance of 516 metres from the head of the district, and the last at a distance of 1,388 metres» .