It might also be that I go to bed too early to have noticed. In any event, all those big, long meals help to fill the stomach with something to absorb some of the alcohol. In brief, having food, especially foods with any fat with your wine will help keep the wine from affecting you as much . Sparkling wines, by the way, especially if consumed as an aperitif, seem to go to the head quicker and this is probably due to the lack of food in your stomach combined with the quicker absorption of alcohol due to the bubbles. O.K., I guess there are general rules and there are very high standards maintained by some in pairing certain wines to certain foods.
Dry wines come before sweeter wines.
Lighter wines should precede heavier tasting wines. Yes, white wine often goes well with white meats and fish while red wine matches red meat but a better principle is lighter tasting foods paired to lighter tasting wines and heavier or stronger tasting foods mated to heavier tasting wines. Nature does not make all white meats light tasting or all white wines light for that matter either. The important principle is that neither the wine nor the food overpowers the other. The tannin blends beautifully to the protein and both taste better.