The natural fragrances (+)-trans whisky lactone 2 and (+)-trans cognac lactone 4, together with a minor amount of their (−)-cis stereoisomers, were prepared in 50% and 42% overall yield, respectively, starting from racemic 1-hepten-3-ol (±)-5 and 1-octen-3-ol (±)-6. The procedure involved first the enantioconvergent, lipase mediated transformation of the secondary allylic alcohols derived dichloroacetates (±)-7 and (±)-8 into the corresponding ...