For most people, withdrawals only happen from alcohol if you spend a period of time drinking all day long, every day. If you keep it to night time, it seems to be very hard to develop full blown withdrawals. I am the same way, I have drank every night or nearly every night, heavily, for years at a time, and never had withdrawals. My friend did it for 12 years, very rarely skipping a night, and decided to stop for a week because he assumed he'd have withdrawals, and he said he actually felt better. I believe it's because alcohol has such a short half life, if you keep it to night time only, you're actually spending half or more of your time without alcohol in your system, so it gives your body a chance to avoid bull-blown physical dependence.
However, once you start drinking when you wake up, you're asking to develop withdrawals. And due to the kindling effect, once you've had withdrawals before, you can develop them much more easily in the future. If you've ever withdrawn, you're likely to become dependent again even if you only drink at night, if you do it nightly.
I have also read of people who get withdrawals from the sort of usage you're talking about after a while. I suspect there is also a genetic component to susceptibility to alcohol dependence.