Command and "a", then Command and "+" will increase the font size in the reading or preview pane of Mail.app, but how to make that larger size the default? If you go into the Preferences (in the Mail menu), there is a font section where you can customize font family and size for just about everything but that reading pane (crazy oversight).
Go to the Go menu (when in Finder or just click on any blank area of your desktop) and select Utilities, the double-click Terminal, then run "defaults write com.apple.mail MinimumHTMLFontSize 14" (type what's inside the quotes and hit enter/return); then, close and open Mail. Note: the default is 12, and if you want larger than 14, just replace that number with whatever font size you want.