Oxidation of 2-chloro-5-hydroxyacetophenone (I) with selenium dioxide gave the phenylglyoxal derivative (II). This was subjected to reductive amination with tert-butylamine in the presence of NaBH4 to afford the racemic amino alcohol (III). After conversion of amino alcohol (III) to the L-tartrate salt, several recrystallizations from methanol-acetone provided the pure (R) enantiomer