I’ve seen even in Australia 12.5% abv still today. Unless you’re talking about Gragnano which is 12.5% and lower.
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If you can stomach the low price? 
I mean, compared to Napa wines of the same quality, this and many orher Santa Cruz Mountains wines are a fraction of the price.
One of the things to keep in mind with California Cabs is the critics who dealt our the recent era prestige favored the big wines. Thats beginning to change, but its still true that if you favor lower ABV wines, youre just gonna have to be prepared to pay less. Seriously, you need to decouple the idea that the wines with the highest prices and prestige have any relevance to what you’re looking for.
The holdouts, who made great wines instead of cashing in on flashy concoctions…maybe they have integrity, commitment to their craft.
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There are a lot of low alcohol great wines out there — a growing number in California and Oregon.
Though I’d caution not to assume the number on the label is accurate, or even roughly accurate. Especially European wine labeled 12.5% (have you noticed how often you see that number?). Taste with an open mind, and don’t let the label influence your assessment.
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Pilcrow is another Napa producer worth seeking out. Very fine.
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I missed out on a bottle when one of their Cabernet’s was on clearance at Wine House and do you have a favorite of theirs?
Granite Lake and Ghost Block have both impressed me. I found Granite Lake to have more power, Ghost Block more grace.
There are tons of producers making wines with “lower ABV.” This question is terribly broad. I think you just need to look and try a little bit harder, and you’ll quickly find the selection is rather large. If you wish to narrow the focus of your question to a particular appellation, or grape, that would make your question more manageable.
Someone please let me know when we have determined what “high end” is.
Get that subset defined and the question becomes easier to answer with some specificity.
p.s. Extradimensional Wine Co has a Shake Ridge Mourvèdre coming out in April that is 12.2% ABV.
For me “high end” is unrelated to price and agnostic to style, defined mostly by the effort and investment put into quality. From what I’ve experienced, this often correlates with price, but my (limited), experience has shown some very notable exceptions both within regions and across big themes.
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There are broad spectrum supply / demand quality trends. Bordeaux is largely seen as lame compared to Burgundy (and I have quickly grown to love Burgundy) but the sheer scale of production allows for incredible quality at very affordable price points. Even still, stylistically folks are picking riper and making high ABV wines.
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There are marketing strategies that absorb investment, notably in new world wines. They are often (unfortunately) very high ABV though also expensive, and often very high quality
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There are producer biases, notably Drouhin and Fourrier are excellent but substantially lower priced (they tend to be lower ABV which makes me double love them)
Thus, I’d propose a few factors
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Quality - what are they doing in farming, vinification, manufacturing, finishing to improve the product
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Style - how much intervention is largely a preference call, I may hate it but you may love it, this is when you pick, what your religion is on micro-oxygenation, how much malolactic fermentation, etc.
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Region - the grapes themselves impart a raw material based factor that is more to do with climate and genetics than effort or preference
To be more specific, I think I could get great value hearing opinions on high quality, region agnostic wines that are stylistically low ABV and any related opinions on if my preferences are simple in the minority now in terms of style
I don’t know much about them, can you share the highest highlights
Take a quick browse through this:
The basic thing is the wines are fresh, lively, moderate alcohol, and fun to drink.
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I find myself drinking very little red wine (the worst offender) these days. And more and more champagne, which all still comes in at 11.5-13%. Plus various whites and rosés, predominantly from Italy at the moment - although some of these have slightly elevated alcohol levels I very rarely find it to be as “in your face” as it is with almost all American, and quite a lot of French, Parkerised wine.
Last year a lot of California winemakers came through trying to sell me their “burgundy-like” wines.
All of the wines sat under 13%, but my issue was they were $100++ wholesale… that’s not the type of wine our customers are looking for with that being said I do enjoy some Far Niente Chardonnay every once in a while.