I just happened to go to an excellent professional seminar this morning, talking about triggers and cravings. Cravings are totally normal and unavoidable for addicts, and the worst of them come early when we're detoxing, but they can come and go for months to a couple years afterwards. During that phase they're generally caused by triggers, things that our brains associate with drinking. This could be a song, a food (especially any food with alcohol in it), a place, a person, an emotion, a time of day, anything that our brains link to drinking.
Cravings are involuntary (Pavlov's dog) and we can't just will them away, but we can help ourselves by identifying and avoiding triggers that cause them (like Pavlov's bell). I know in my case, I haven't seriously craved alcohol since I was about 6 months in to abstinence, but I've felt mildly triggered a few times since then.