I should have said that my recommendations should be for cool season grasses
only. Do you refer to cool season grasses or warm season grasses? In
general, warm season grasses are cut much shorter than cool season grasses.
That said, warm season grasses probably don't have that much of a winter to
worry about anyway.
For the ideal cutting height for cool season grasses, the general
recommendation is 2.5-4" for tall fescue, and 2-3.5" for others. My believe
is to cut as high as possible in the heat of the summer (e.g. I'd go for 3.
5-4" for others too). So for winter, I'd go for the higher of the low range
Grass maintenance is more of an art than science, so if one wants to go
lower like 2", it is fine. In fact, I did mine at 2.29" last weekend for
the last cut (as my mower doesn't have the 2.5" setting, and the next one is
2.72").
However, I'd definitely recommend AGAINST cutting as low as 1" for cool
season grasses. With an uneven ground, it is really easy to scalp some of
the grasses, leaving it severely damaged.
Again, the above is for cool season grasses only.