I like the Genesis by Hogue label from Washington State. I can usually find them for $7 to $10. The Cab, Merlot, and Chard are all good.

There are many good Spanish reds under $12. I'll cast a vote for Conde de Valdemar crianza. Lorinon crianza is another. Both generally available for a bit under $12.

Cavit (Italy) Pinot Noir is my favorite everyday table wine. I can get it for less than $10 a bottle out here in OK.

For this price range I like the San Felician wines in Argentina.

If we're going to Argentina for wine...

Cabrini Malbec 2002 Roble for about $7

Penfolds Shiraz. No question.

If you mean Bin 389 (and that is a truly excellent Shiraz!), it costs a bit more than USD 12 -- in the UK it runs about USD 30 per bottle, considerably less in the US. The cheaper shiraz from penfolds is not quite so competitive (there are lakes of shiraz swishing around Ausralia, so lots of good cheap shiraz around).

A great wine that was under USD 12 a bottle when I bought it (but now sells for USD 30) is Oliverhill cab. A remarkable quality of softness yet full bodied that is truly exceptional (I guess that accounts for the price increase!).

Bogle an excelent old vine ZIN from my state. Less than 10.00 US. bottle
A big consitently good Zin.

Bin 389 indeed. Barossa Valley, whilst pricey, is also a consistenly excellent varietal of Penfolds Shiraz.

My last bottle of Grange cost USD 250. Excellent shiraz indeed! But a bit out of the price range for this thread.

Actually the world is awash with a glut of wine (particularly red wine), making for some truly great second labels and less well marketed wines. Lots of bargains to be had for under USD 5, much less USD 12. And I say that as someone who has a cellar averaging over USD 100 per bottle; yet some of the best wines cost much less.
The Bogle Old Vine Zin is a great example of a true bargain -- far better than the regular Bogle Zin yet priced very little higher. 95% of the wine Bogle produces is plonk, but the other 5% is stellar (in the first growth class).

^ I second this motion.

I don't think I saw it posted here, but Cellar No. 8 has a great Cab and Merlot...I think it's around 13.99 a bottle or so. It's my "jug" wine. :D

Tuesday Night Wine Club.
 

I go into wine-stores and ask: "What do you have that's good value and less than $12 a bottle for the Tuesday Night Wine Club?" and I am fed up with the typical response that goes something like this: "We do not drink wine less than $20 ($22/$24, etc.) a bottle, so we would not know." Accompanied by a look like there's a nasty smell under their noses (it's me!).
My point no. 1 is that I think they must all attend lectures at wine-vendors' conferences on how to talk us suckers into buying expensive wine.
My point no. 2 is the philosophy underpinning my "Tuesday Night Wine Club" (RTM), which is: If you want to drink expensive wines beyond your budget, you can do so (at preferential times -- like weekends) by 'averaging-down' between-times, and what better than Tuesday night (read Monday, Wednesday and Thursday too!) Hence the drive to get good-value wines for the rest of the week, and, as a useful concomitant (that seems to confound snotty wine-sellers) enables one better to appreciate fine-wines and become a genuine conoisseur!

And so, every city should have a Tuesday Night Wine Club to beat up (especially by the carrot of bulk-buying) on the wine vendors and push them into providing reasonably drinkable wine at reasonable prices ... and to do so without all the b-s. I have a sneaking suspicion that they would do better using this as a biz-strategy than trying to establish a domain of high-cost, lo-volume merchandise.

Yours,
Ross.
(Lifetime Pres. of The Tuesday Night wine Club -- sorry ..... too busy drinking wine to start a website! .... Yet!)

P.S. Anything Montes from Chile tends to be excellent value (God bless 'em!).
More when I think about it..... Cheers! Happy N.Y.

We tried a couple low priced reds this week and enjoyed both. The local wine merchant recommended a Rodney Strong chardonnay and a pinot noir to go with the Christmas turkey - I don't like chardonnays, so asked for a second recommendation. The Pinot Noir was Chilean, from Cono Sur. The $9.99 price and screw top worried me, but it was quite good. Friday night, we asked for an everyday red to drink while we watched a video. We took home a Cab/Shiraz blend from Yalumba Winery. Quite tasty and $8.99 fit my everyday category.

Also Saturday, I picked up The Global Encyclopedia of Wine marked down from $75.00 to $9.98. A little out of date (2001), but still informative and well worth the price if only for the beautiful pictures.

My favorite is Ravenswood Zin.