With clams drained and juice reserved, place clams in 1/2 cup of the white wine, put in fridge to rest.
Place potatoes in saucepan and cover with water, cook on medium heat for a 5 minutes, they should appear under done.
Drain and rinse with cold water. Set aside.
In a 6" skillet cook pancetta until crispy, remove pancetta keeping scant amount of fat in skillet.
In your skillet melt 1 tablespoon of butter with the pancetta fat, add diced shallots and garlic, cook only until onions are opaque.
Next deglaze shallots with 1/2 cup of white wine, reduce by 2/3. Remove garlic and discard.
In a soup pot heated; melt the rest of the butter, transfer shallots to soup pot, add flour to butter and shallots over medium heat and stir not to burn.
Mixture will start to thicken.
Add half and half a little at a time while stirring or whisking constantly.
Stir in cream of celery soup until incorporated.
Mixture will thicken.
Add a desired amount of the clam juice (usually about a third).
Place salt, pink pepper, cayenne, with clams in wine, in the soup pot.
Add potatoes and milk with mixture.
On medium low temperature bring chowder to a simmer.
Turn temperature down to low and let chowder simmer gently for 15 minutes, stirring frequently.
If too thick, add more of the clam juice or water; a small amount at a time to desired thickness.
Let rest covered briefly before serving.
Garnish with a few drops of Congac
Top with the Pancetta.
Top with scant amount of chives or fine diced parsley.