re: Total Wines Picks

For your wife, let her try Hampton water rose, you can find it at total wine for pretty cheap, less than $20 a bottle. It's a wine made by Jon Bon Jovi and his son, it's a great summer wine, not sweet at all, heavy in strawberry, and just an easy and approachable wine to get people who 'don't like wine' to drink.

As for the reds for you, if you're used to cabs and fuller bodied pinots, for France i'd definitely look into some Cotes, you can find some cheaper cote du rhones that would fit your palate, for me they were the intermediary between cabernet and different styles of red wine. The catch is a lot of French reds definitely need to be decanted and need to sit for probably an hour or more to fully open up. Or not, the cheaper bottles really won't matter too much.
Here are a couple good cheaper ones
-Mousset Sainte Cecile Les Vignes Cotes Du Rhone Villages
-Domaine Mousset Les Garrigues Cotes Du Rhone Villages
-Halos De Jupiter Costieres De Nimes Rouge

Bordeaux's can be interesting but really hard to find older vintages and also really expensive.