Pak 'n Save cans $3.99 wine special

Pak 'n Save has come under fire for a low alcohol special. Photo/supplied

A Pak'nSave in Christchurch has canned a promotion that sold Hardys moscato wine for $3.99.

Backlash from alcohol safety groups, including the National Addiction Centre, resulted in the special being pulled.

Alcohol safety groups have said the promotion was a cunning ploy given the in-store marketing didn't mention the wine was low alcohol.

Comments have also been made about the importance of alcohol pricing in discouraging excess drinking.

Antoinette Laird, spokesperson for Foodstuffs, which owns Pak 'n Save, said the special had only been available at one store. The wine was just 6 per cent alcohol.

The wine is roughly half the strength of normal wine and contained about 3.5 standard drinks.

"This promotion was a local one run solely by this particular store on a low alcohol wine," Laird said.

"We contacted the store and they have removed the promotion. We do take our responsibility as a retailer very seriously."

In 2014, the Ministry of Justice looked into a minimum price of $1 and $1.20 per standard drink, finding that the former would save society $318 million over 10 years, while the latter would save $624 million over 10 years.

It noted that minimum pricing would affect low-priced drinks, but raising the excise tax would be a stronger tool for changing consumer behaviour because it affected the prices of all alcoholic drinks.

But the report recommended holding off considering a minimum price until 2019, so the effects of the 2011 reforms can be more accurately seen.