This article describes the influence of the user needs paradigm in the construction of specialised dictionaries. It shows that this paradigm coincides with the main tenets of the function theory of lexicography, a theoretical construction that offers theoretical and practical solutions for improving the quality of specialised dictionaries. This theoretical stance is illustrated with reference to how encyclopaedic information is dealt with in two wine dictionaries that are separated by almost 40 years, and which are, therefore, ideal candidates for investigating the influence of the user paradigm on their compilation. More specifically, this article considers the lexicographic treatment accorded to subject field labels, which are presented as essential lexicographic data for helping non-experts and interested laypeople. These labels assist users more in communication functions in a foreign language than in their native language, and are consequently needed in trilingual dictionaries such as the South African Trilingual Wine Dictionary, a free access Internet dictionary that targets experts, semi-experts and interested laypeople.