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The leanest steak there is — which means less tannin, not more.
Pinot Noir, Merlot, or a Right Bank Bordeaux. Fillet is tender and mild, and a huge tannic red simply flattens it.
Filet mignon is cut from the tenderloin, a muscle that does almost no work, which makes it the most tender and the least fatty cut on the animal. It is also the mildest in flavour — people pay for the texture rather than the taste. Both facts point the same way, and both point away from the enormous red most steakhouses will sell you with it.
Tannin needs fat and protein to bind to. Fillet has plenty of protein and very little fat, so a firmly tannic wine gets only half of what it wants and the rest grips your saliva — the wine reads as austere and drying rather than structured.
The flavour argument runs the same way. Fillet is delicate, and a 15% oaked Cabernet buries it. The reason a steakhouse pairs the biggest red with the most expensive cut is a pricing convention, not a pairing one.
Pinot Noir. Silky, high in acidity, low in tannin, with an earthy quality that suits beef better than its lightness suggests. A red Burgundy with some age is close to ideal — softened tannin is exactly what a lean cut wants.
Merlot. Plummy and round with genuinely soft tannin. A Right Bank Bordeaux from Pomerol or Saint-Émilion is the classic version, and it is the most reliable answer here.
An older Cabernet if you want the steakhouse experience done properly. Age softens tannin, and a bottle with ten years on it works where the same wine at three would not.
Fillet is rarely served plain, and whatever is on it is more assertive than the meat. A red-wine or Madeira jus deepens things and supports a fuller wine. Béarnaise is rich, eggy and tarragon-scented, and it wants acidity rather than tannin — a white Burgundy is a defensible choice with a béarnaise fillet, however odd that sounds.
Wrapped in bacon, as fillet often is because it is so lean, the added salt softens whatever you open and makes a sharper wine taste rounder.
Peppercorn sauce points at Syrah; mushroom sauce points hard at Pinot Noir, which shares an earthy, forest-floor character with the mushrooms.
Pinot Noir, Merlot, or a Right Bank Bordeaux. Fillet is lean and mild, so it wants softer tannin than a marbled cut.
Only an older, softened one. Fillet has little fat for tannin to bind to, so a young firm Cabernet grips your saliva and buries the meat. A ribeye is the cut that earns it.
Because tannin binds to protein and fat. Take away the fat and half of what the tannin wants is gone, so it feels drying and austere instead of structured.
Then acidity matters more than tannin. A rich, eggy, tarragon sauce is better met by a white Burgundy than by a big red, odd as that sounds.
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