A concise synthesis of the oxygen substituted ring A compound 2 found in Taxol® 1a and Taxotere® 1b starting from 2, 2-dimethylcyclohexane-1, 3-dione and proceeding via the key intermediates 8 and 11, is described. The absolute configuration of 2 was established from an X-ray crystal structure determination of a 4-bromophenylbenzoate derivative, viz. 15.