Increasing Alcohol Content

[summa]

Ok, I've been somewhat away from the wine bizz for the last few years, and started back into it not more than two weeks ago.

I've noticed that the alcohol content of california wines has inceased greatly. It used to be hard to find one with more than 13.0-13.5%, now that seems to be the low end of the spectrum, could anyone answer me why?

I could of course understand this for the zins and the rhones, but why merlot?, cab? even chard? Just want a clue as to where this trend came from and where it might be heading.

[This message has been edited by summa (edited 08-02-2001).]