Alexander Valley Vineyards Cab, in good vintages, checks this box when you can find it on sale. The production volume is relatively high, but it’s flat out solid, estate grown, and varietally accurate. Since it’s not heavily spoofed, cool/wet vintages will be a bit more green.
Partial repeat from my post under “cellar defenders”:
I have not had a lot of luck with cab in the $10-$35 range, so when I found something that worked for me, I stuck with it - 14 Hands Cab (Washington - Chateau Ste Michelle I believe) which is available for $7-$10 per bottle all the time locally. This wine is very consistent from year to year and it has a nice savory side to it that I really like. Cheers!
My wife liked the 2014 14 Hands. I haven’t tried it.
Good call. I’ve only had a few vintages but thought they were all solid bottles for the mid-to-upper teens price.
Some just arrived tonight. I popped a bottle. Excellent wine.
A very rich but soft, balanced example of 1994 Napa reds, loaded with notes of plum, black olive, pipe tobacco, eucalyptus, espresso, and bittersweet chocolate.
The finish presented elegant echoes of smoke, mineral, and dried herbs. The fruit clearly had the heft of mountainside grapes.
Substance Cab as mentioned above is my favorite.
2016 Substance Cabernet Sauvignon - USA, Washington (9/18/2018)
Day 1: A big wine with blueberries, Bing cherries, smoke, oak and vanilla. Finishes strong and you can taste the oak. This wine is similar to some of the oak barrel wines from Napa but at a fraction of the price. Very much a guilty pleasure wine. 90 points
Day 2: More mellow than the intensity of day 1. Fruit is not as vibrant and a little astringent. The drop off tells me this is a pop and pour wine. 85 points
Recommendation: Drink now. (90 points)
Tapiz Alta collection cab
Okay to answer the original question consensus says your an asshat ![[wink.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/04707e6a7bbb03e0153e349d8a9270d30e1e9525.gif "wink"){kind=small}
the only answer to this is that everyones taste is different. your crappy $12 wine may be someones splurge deliciousness.
Naturally! 
It isn’t $5.00 above; winner pays 18% surcharge, and this winner bought all 6 bottles which helps to win. More to the point, is this even drinkable?
It was last night, with few signs of reaching full maturity yet. Not even a hint of thinning or browning at the rim. Just lovely.
An 18 percent premium atop $20 is $3.60. As offset, there was no sales tax, on my eleven bottles…
Red wines made in the classic California style from the Stags Leap District AVA are hard to find at this price range.
+1 on Wines of Substance
Avalon Napa used to be good based on vintage
I like Sycamore Lane Cab. Usually less than 10 bucks but harder to find as they’ve gone to a different distribution model.
Usually easy to drink and non wine drinkers seem to like it as well.
The new Lot 643 seems worth a try at the price…
+1 re what Matt said, I think it is a matter of taste and what your pain threshold is re price…That being said, a number of bottles of Columbia Crest Grand Estate cabs that “got lost” in my cellar, aged out quite nicely and drank a lot better than wd have been anticipated, given the price…Currently available in our area <$10/b…While I rarely drink merlot these days, the CC Grand Estate merlots that “got lost”, also drank quite nicely with some age on them…A friend of ours loves the 14 Hands wines, especially the cab.
No, Chris, you’re not an asshat. However, if you answered a question about Cabernet Sauvignon by recommending a Rhone, well then, that might qualify!
By and large, the sub-$15 Cab is a tough catetory in which to really score. There are some good recommendations about. I was really, really impressed recently by a Full Pull offering: 2013 Palencia Wine Co. Cabernet Sauvignon La Monarcha Frenchman Hills Vineyard Wahluke Slope. It was $14.999. Holy cow it’s good.
I am still new on this forum so I hope the following suggestions do not cost me my membership 
I am always looking for the every day drinking cab that I can crack open for a week night casual dinner without feeling too wasteful. I have been enjoying J. Lohr Seven Oaks quite a bit lately and it is usually sub $12 at Costco. The standard Josh cab is also not terrible IMO. If you can catch it on sale, the Josh North Coast Family Reserve runs which runs about $17 locally can be found under $15. I find it to be very enjoyable cab at the price point.
I definitely enjoy nicer cabs more, but those listed above are week night staples in my household.
I’ve recently enjoyed a couple of bottles of the 2014 Yaldara Cabernet Sauvignon (Barossa Valley, Australia). $10 at Wine Exchange. This is a low-oak, medium-weight, balanced, non-spoofed Cab that, to me, shows very good varietal character and is an easy drinker. Those who prefer the oaky, heavier Cabs (e.g. Substance, Educated Guess, etc) will likely not think much of this.
Around these parts, at $14.99 or less, you’d be looking at Argentinian Malbec or Languedoc-ian Grenache/Syrah.
BTW, 2015 Languedoc [if you can still find any] is a category of table wines I’d be looking to cellar out towards the 2040 timeframe.