There are lot of small, annoying details.

"Many whiskies, especially those that are made on the Scottish island of Isley, have a typical smoky taste that develops when malted barley is smoked on peat fire."

The smoke comes from the drying step in the malting process, which was/is traditionally done by burning peat. "Malted barley is smoked" sounds weird and incorrect. Nitpicking, sure, but can be spotted by anyone familiar with the process.

"Isley" wow. Is this a sign of the quality of the research, or is that some rarely used spelling?

I've never come across it before. I assume it's a typo or some other mistake.

Yes, it jarred for me too.