Over the years I've had many conversations with friends about this. I use Listerine and wouldn't drink it, don't worry if I'm eating out and have a meal with some volatilized wine in it. But I know other friends who have had cravings triggered by the smell of (harmless) cooked alcohol in a boeuf bourgignon, who smell alcohol in hygiene products and want to go out and drink.
Some of us have an intensified physiological response to alcohol, the taste , the smell, just knowing there is alcohol present, the sense impressions are extremely powerful.
A friend of mine sober 12 years said that he can look at an ad for beer on the TV and he salivates, can smell the liquid being poured, imagine the foam breaking, he is as responsive as ever to alcohol as a wonderful taste sensation -- whereas I drank to medicate emotions and have little or no desire to taste alcohol, slightly dislike the smell. If I'm hurt or angry, I wish I could go and numb the feelings with wine or vodka, but I don't associate drinking with meals or delicious tastes. Alcohol was more of a crude medicine or anaesthetic for me.
I don't cook with alcohol these days because I like the cleaner, clearer flavours and I use lemon juice, spring-filtered water or homemade clarified chicken or vegetable stocks for cooking. My cooking is much lighter and healthier, my palate much sharper and more discerning. And I wouldn't want to trigger cravings in anyone who may be more reactive to the presence of alcohol than I am -- after 4+ years sober, I prefer to live in a house with no liquor sitting around. I have no problem with friends bringing wine around and I will buy wine for guests, but ask them to take the half-bottle away when they leave. It still amazes me how little most people drink.
I suppose the answer is to know ourselves really well, understand what kind of alcoholic we were. A friend of mine says she still has a terrible oral thirst, now craves juices and smoothies as she once longed for alcohol. In my first years sober I made homemade ginger beer and iced teas, but now I just have a glass of cold water if I want something thirst-quenching. I take along a small bottle of soda water when I go out socialising, in case the host only serves wine. But it isn't an issue.